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Middle East

Powell Says He May Meet with Arafat

2002-04-07

Hours before leaving on a crucial peace-seeking mission to the Middle East, Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday he may meet with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, but cautioned that he might not return with a cease-fire deal. Appearing on Sunday news talk shows, Powell said he spoke early in the day with Israeli President Ariel Sharon who understands President Bush's desire for a halt to its incursions into Palestinian lands but did not offer a timeframe for withdrawing from its military sweep of the West Bank. On Fox News Sunday, Powell said he hoped Sharon had taken Bush's "injunction very much to heart and will speed this up and start to withdraw, as President Bush said, without delay. And he means now."
I think most of us doubt greatly he's going to return with a cease-fire deal. Because of the Europressure, Israel will withdraw from the West Bank, at which time the Palestinians will stupidly "counter-attack" from the Gaza Strip while the West Bank thugs strut around pretending they "drove the IDF out." If the "counter-attack" results in enough dead Israelis, the Gaza organizations can be stomped next, possibly as early as week after next. Watch to see if the reservists are demob'd. My guess is that they won't be.

NPR said this morning that Powell's first stop was in Morocco. Now, Morocco hasn't exactly been a diplomatic powerhouse recently, but they did offer to take in Yassir if he suddenly needed to relocate. Perhaps Colin is doing some advance Apartment hunting?

Of course, I still want to see the Saudi's take him in, and make him live with Idi Amin.
Posted by Hermetic 4/8/2002 12:03:06 PM

Posted by:Fred Pruitt

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