Powell leaves ME empty-handed: ‘Mubarak declines to hold talks’
CAIRO, April 17: US Secretary of State Colin Powell left the Middle East on Wednesday after talks with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan at the end of a Middle East tour that failed to secure an Israeli-Palestinian truce.
The secretary of state had little to show for his shuttle apart from an Israeli pledge to end its reoccupation of battered West Bank cities within “a week or so”. Even that was nothing more than a consolation prize, considering it has been two weeks since US President George Bush issued his line-in-the-sand demand for Israel to end its crushing offensive without delay.
Colin Powell seemed to sum up his ill-fated mission in a single phrase when he said: “Ceasefire is not a relevant term at the moment.”
Mr Powell left Cairo after an hour of talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and his Jordanian counterpart Marwan al-Muasher about the outcome of his mission.
Muasher had travelled to Cairo after talks in Saudi Arabia, which along with Egypt and Jordan has been at the forefront of recent Arab peace efforts.
Powell said before leaving Israeli-occupied Al Quds earlier in the day he would meet the Egyptian foreign minister because President Hosni Mubarak was “indisposed”.
Several Egypt-based analysts said Mubarak’s decision not to meet Powell was a deliberate snub to show his displeasure at the results of the tour, but Powell shrugged off such a possibility.
“If there’s no meeting with Mubarak, then something’s wrong. There’s a serious problem,” said Emad Gad, a political analyst at the Al Ahram Centre for Political and Strategic Studies.
Walid Kazziha, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo, also said Mubarak’s decision not to meet Powell was significant.
“It’s a strong message and other Arab leaders may prefer not to go to Washington,” he said.
But Powell put a brave face on the apparent snub, saying: “I spoke to President Mubarak the night before last so I don’t read anything into the cancellation.”
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Powell was leaving the region with the situation on the ground “much worse” than when he came.
Foreign ministry sources in Cairo said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had briefed Maher by telephone earlier in the day on his talks with Powell.
A senior State Department official said Powell had met Maher and Muasher to discuss his tour and how to proceed now.
The official said Powell had wanted to brief Maher and Muasher on his meetings in the region, which included several rounds of talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as well as Arafat.
ESCALATION FEARED: Powell’s failure to bring Israelis and Palestinians any closer to ending 18 months of bloodletting appears certain to undermine US prestige in the region, where many fear the conflict could now escalate to new heights.
Dispatching Powell in the first place went against the cardinal rule of the Bush administration’s sometimes reluctant Middle East diplomacy — never send in the big guns without a guarantee of achieving something significant.
“US involvement was supposed to be the trump card, the big external factor that would shake everything up,” said Israeli political analyst Gerald Steinberg.
“But Powell’s mission was premature and lacked a clear operational plan. That’s why next to nothing was accomplished.”
LIMITS OF US POWER: Israeli defiance of its superpower ally plus a Palestinian refusal to even consider a ceasefire declaration while the West Bank was under siege betrayed the limits of Washington’s power to bend the two sides to its will.
Analysts said Powell’s failure to rein in Israel’s offensive could also hurt Washington’s already difficult struggle to win Arab backing for possible military action against Baghdad in Bush’s “war on terror”.
“US prestige in the Arab world has never been as low as now,” said Hassan Nafaa, a political scientist at Cairo University. “A superpower that accepts this kind of humiliation from Israel doesn’t deserve to be a superpower.”
Bush sent Powell to the region only after days of mounting pressure from European and Arab allies for the United States to re-engage forcefully in its traditional role as chief Middle East peacemaker.
Israel’s assault on the West Bank had sparked an international outcry as televised images of death and destruction filtered out of battered cities and refugee camps.
SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY?: Some diplomats said Bush had given the former four-star general an impossible task. But Palestinian analysts said Powell had squandered an important opportunity.
Ziad Abu-Amr, a Palestinian political scientist and lawmaker, said Powell should have exerted more pressure on the Israeli prime minister for an immediate pullout from Palestinian-ruled areas.
“I think the (Bush) administration blinked first and it seems it wasn’t serious about the messages they were sending to Sharon,” he said.
Abu-Amr expressed concern that Sharon would now have a freer hand to expand his military campaign.
For his part, Powell closed out his visit apportioning blame indirectly to both sides.
He said at a news conference the United States was disappointed with Arafat’s performance in fighting terrorism, but said talk about a ceasefire would only become relevant after the Jewish state wrapped up its offensive.
The top US diplomat, who in the last few days had taken pains to lower expectations for significant progress, pledged to return to the region to “move ahead” with peace efforts as US officials scrambled to put the best face on his mission.—Reuters
CAIRO, April 17: US Secretary of State Colin Powell left the Middle East on Wednesday after talks with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan at the end of a Middle East tour that failed to secure an Israeli-Palestinian truce.
