WASHINGTON, Nov 28: Us Secretary of State Colin Powell welcomed a new Middle East peace plan to be unveiled in Geneva on Monday, but maintained Washington’s tough stance against Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, saying the United States does not find him to be a “responsible partner for peace”.

In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR) aired on Thursday, Mr Powell said he found it “useful to have different ideas out there percolating for people to take a look at”.

But he stopped short of endorsing the Geneva Initiative, saying that, like the roadmap, “we welcomed these two initiatives, but they are just ideas. They don’t represent anyone’s position, other than the authors’.

“But I think this is a challenging moment for the Middle East and to the extent that there are people who are thinking about these issues and offering ideas, I think they should be welcomed,” he told NPR.

Mr Powell stressed that the US “won’t deal with Chairman Arafat. We won’t speak to Chairman Arafat on an official level for the simple reason that we don’t believe he is a responsible partner for peace.—AFP