International

U.S. stress on Mitchell plan

By Vaiju Naravane

PARIS APRIL. 10. The U.S. Secretary of State, Gen. Colin Powell, the U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Anan, the Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, the Spanish Foreign Minister, Josep Pique, and the European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, met in Madrid just hours after another suicide bomb in the Israeli town of Haifa killed 10 persons. Mr. Pique was also representing the European Union whose rotating presidency Spain currently holds.

The five, who agree that the immediate objectives are a cease fire, a cessation of all violence and terrorism and the immediate withdrawal of the Israeli army from the occupied territories, held their talks as Israel refused to heed calls for a withdrawal, ignoring appeals made by the U.S. President, George Bush, and the international community.

Gen. Powell who met the Spanish Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, will hold several bilateral meetings with his Russian and Spanish counterparts before leaving for Jordan on Thursday.

Eyebrows are being raised in European capitals over the inordinately long time Gen. Powell seems to be taking to reach Israel and the Palestinian territories for meetings with the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, and the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat. "Gen. Powel is dawdling en route to Jerusalem, so as to give Mr. Sharon more time to finish off his business,'' Jacques Amalric, a respected editorialist noted in the French daily Liberation. Europeans are hoping their discussions with Gen. Powell will lead to more strident calls for the application of U.N. Resolution 1402 on an immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

Before his arrival in Madrid, Gen. Powell indicated that he would aim to accelerate the implementation of the Mitchell Plan for restarting peace negotiations between the two parties. He said, however, that the U.S. did not plan to impose sanctions against Israel. He also confirmed that the United States was prepared to send a small contingent of observers to monitor an eventual ceasefire. "We're talking about some small numbers of people that we would draw perhaps from our diplomatic presence there, or send in some other individuals from state department or other government agencies,'' he said. "They would not be an interpositional force trying to keep people from shooting at each other.''

Gen. Powell said he would meet Mr. Sharon and that he had "every intention of meeting Chairman Arafat." The Israelis said they would not object to a meeting between Gen. Powell and Mr. Arafat. "I'm prepared to stay for some while,'' he said.Mr. Solana pleaded for firmer E.U. action in West Asia, saying the situation had gone "beyond acceptable limits''Chris Patten, the E.U.'s Commissioner for Foreign Affairs, said there were attempts to "destroy the legitimate ambitions of the Palestinians to establish a stable state on their own land.''

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