Annan Calls for World Effort on Mideast Peace

Despite the recent upsurge of Palestinian-Israeli violence, an international initiative could bring the two sides back into negotiations that would offer hope of a settlement, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Sunday.

Speaking at a news conference at the Norwegian Nobel Institute, Annan said that Israeli and Palestinian leaders “have been trying to end the conflict” but that “the parties alone cannot do it themselves.”

“They need help from a third party, and in this case I believe it has to be a collective international effort,” Annan said. He said he has been in touch with leaders of the United States, the European Union, Russia and some Arab countries to forge agreement on what to do next. “We have exchanged some ideas, we are in constant discussions, but I cannot say that at this stage we have decided on concrete action to be taken,” Annan said.

The secretary-general is in Oslo to accept--with the United Nations as an organization--the Nobel Peace Prize in a ceremony today.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, who arrived in Moscow from Kazakhstan on an eight-day tour of Europe and Central Asia, had hard words for both Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat and the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Powell told reporters traveling with him that he was deeply distressed about the suicide bombing in Israel on Sunday, and he warned that the escalating violence is “destroying” Arafat’s credibility and authority.

In what has become almost a daily diplomatic reprimand, Powell said Arafat is capable of “doing more than he has done so far--I think the burden right now is on Mr. Arafat to do more to get the violence down to zero.”

Ties between Washington and Moscow have improved dramatically since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, which might make the possibilities for international cooperation in the Middle East better than they were in the past.

“When the whole international community acts with unity . . . we are often able to have the right impact,” Annan said. “We saw this work in Bosnia, and in other situations. I’m hoping that collective effort would also yield results in the Middle East.”

Annan added that he has been encouraged by “the greater involvement of Washington” and its “determination to get much more actively engaged.”

In Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said Arafat’s failure to stem Palestinian violence directed at Israeli civilians has made the creation of an independent Palestinian state far less likely.

“Until Arafat demonstrates that he’s serious about controlling suicide attackers from Palestinian territory against the Israelis, there’s not going to be any progress,” Cheney said on the NBC program “Meet the Press.”

Annan expressed regret that the flare-up of Palestinian-Israeli violence had prevented Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres from coming to Oslo for the Nobel ceremonies, because he had been scheduled to meet with them here to “discuss ways of helping the peace process [through] economic assistance to the Palestinian population.”

Powell, in his comments to reporters, warned militant groups that the wave of suicide bombings--which have killed dozens over the past two weeks and injured more than 200--will lead nowhere.

“You can’t put it all on Mr. Arafat,” he said. “There’s a leader of Hamas. There are leaders of all these organizations. And all of them bear responsibility for what is happening and all bear responsibility for doing something about it. Whether it is Hamas or one of the other organizations, they need to understand that it leads nowhere. . . . They will not push Israel into the sea. So they will not be successful if that is their goal.”

The secretary said the United States was working on new ideas to help restore Palestinian Authority control while providing Israel with a sense of security. But he cautioned that the process was likely to be slow.

“The cease-fire is going to have to be built area by area. I am of the view that you are not going to get a cease-fire everywhere all at once,” Powell said. “You are going to have to get it location by location, piece by piece, and try to build this--if it is going to be built at all--like coral, one piece at a time coming out of the sea.”

In Oslo, Annan also discussed the United Nations’ expected role in restoring peace and encouraging development in Afghanistan. A multinational peace force could arrive in Kabul in the next two weeks, he said. But “recovery and reconstruction” will be “a very long-term process, perhaps as much as 10 years,” he said.

“My only hope is that the political will to help the Afghan people will be sustained for the period and that attention will not wander,” Annan said.

The agreement on an interim Afghan government reached in Germany last week calls for the new administration to take over in Kabul Dec. 22, which makes that the target date for the arrival of a peacekeeping force, he said.

The force is needed “to ensure that we have a secure environment . . . to allow us to carry out our work in the humanitarian field and to assist the incoming administration and government to carry out its mandate,” he said.

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Holley reported from Oslo and Wright from Moscow.