Powell holds talks amid escalating violence
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, February 26, 2001
JERUSALEM — U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell held talks with
Israeli and Palestinian leaders amid increased violence in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip.
The violence escalated despite orders by Palestinian Authority Chairman
Yasser Arafat to suspend clashes during Powell's tour of the region.
Palestinians fired on Israeli targets both in the West Bank and Gaza Strip
overnight Sunday.
Powell met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak for two hours and was briefed by Israeli Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz.
Powell also met Israeli Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon and
Arafat later in the day.
At least one Palestinian was killed and more than 50 were injured in
clashes with Israeli troops in what Palestinian groups termed was a day of
rage on Saturday. Again, the bloodiest clashes took place around the West
Bank city of Bethlehem.
A leading aide of Arafat, PLO Executive Committee secretary Mahmoud
Abbas, said shots were fired near his El Bireh office in what he described
as an Israeli assassination attempt. Abbas has been criticized for his ties
with Sharon.
For his part, Powell has been lobbying Arab states to support continued
international sanctions on Iraq. Powell, who also met his Russian
counterpart, Igor Ivanov, discussed Iranian weapons programs and the
Israeli-Palestinian mini-war.
In Amman, thousands of Jordanians staged an anti-U.S. march in protest
of U.S. and British air strikes against Iraqi targets. Other protests took
place in the West Bank.
Powell's visit came as the United States renewed a defense pact with
Kuwait. The agreement was renewed for 10 years. Kuwaiti officials said army
units were placed on the highest state of alert amid Iraqi threats against
the sheikdom.
In Berlin, the Die Welt daily quoted German intelligence as saying that
Iraq could complete a nuclear bomb within a three to six-year period. German
intelligence has reportedly concluded that Baghdad has completed biological
weapons as well and is developing a long-range missile with a range
of 3,000 kilometers.
In London, the Sunday Times reported that Iraq successfully tested a
nuclear bomb in 1989. The newspaper quoted a former member on the Iraqi
Atomic Energy Commssion who is now in hiding in the autonomous Kurdish
region of northern Iraq.
Monday, February 26, 2001
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