Arafat Condemns Terror; Powell Meeting Back On

After weeks of resisting U.S. requests, Yasser Arafat on Saturday condemned all violence and terrorism carried out against civilians, leading Secretary of State Colin L. Powell to reschedule his meeting with the Palestinian Authority president for today at his besieged headquarters in the West Bank.

“We strongly condemn the violent operations that target Israeli civilians, especially the recent operation in Jerusalem,” the statement said, referring to a suicide bombing Friday that killed six Israelis and injured scores at a busy outdoor market here.

“We have to all work together . . . to stop the war” and relaunch the peace process, the statement said. Arafat’s long-awaited denunciation of terrorism had taken on particular importance because the latest bombing was claimed by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a militia linked to the Palestinian leader’s Fatah movement.

Arafat’s statement contained “a number of interesting and positive elements” that led Powell to decide to make the trip today to the West Bank city of Ramallah, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told reporters traveling with the secretary.

Boucher commended Arafat’s statement, which was issued after the Palestinian leader met with his top aides at his battered office compound, for its condemnation of terrorism, commitment to a negotiated peace, support for the Powell mission and call for immediate implementation of two earlier plans on security and a political settlement.

But U.S. officials refused to say that Arafat had met the long-standing U.S. demand to renounce terrorism and rein in the militants who have been behind a wave of 110 suicide bombings over the last 18 months. The value of Arafat’s statement will be determined “by what action follows,” Boucher said.

In their meeting, Powell will press Arafat to “show leadership” and “make these statements a reality with effective action” by ending the wave of terror against Israel and participating in an “early resumption of a political process,” Boucher added.

America’s top diplomat still faces daunting obstacles in making even minimal progress on his Mideast rescue mission.

After Arafat’s statement was issued, the militant Islamic group Hamas pledged to continue its campaign of violence against Israel.

“We have the full right to react without any limitation against the state terrorism of Israel,” said Hamas spokesman Ismail abu Shanab. Hamas is the second of three groups behind the spate of bombings. Islamic Jihad is the third.

Communique Attacks Israeli Actions

And for all the positive words in Arafat’s communique, it was also filled with bitter accusations about Israel’s “choking siege.” It charged that Israel was trying to “squash our people’s quest for freedom” with tanks, warplanes and artillery. And it appealed to Powell, as well as United Nations and other international officials, to survey the areas under Israeli occupation for evidence of the “massacres and blood baths plaguing our people.”

Meanwhile, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said it was “not impressed” with the statement and rejected Arafat’s words as duplicitous.

“We want deeds, not words,” said Danny Ayalon, a senior foreign policy advisor to Sharon.

“They are sending the suicide attacker to Jerusalem, giving her instructions and financing. They cannot keep the strategy of terror and expect us to be impressed by condemnations,” he said, referring to the young female bomber in Friday’s attack.

Israel continued to defy U.S. pressure by moving into at least six additional Palestinian villages or towns in the West Bank on Saturday and arresting dozens of suspected extremists.

Israel withdrew from Dahariya, but the army announced that troops and tanks had rolled into the villages of Burkin and Arabe outside Jenin, Bir Nabala outside Ramallah and Beit Iba, El Baidan and Beit Wazan near Nablus. The military also remains entrenched in Ramallah, Jenin, Nablus and Bethlehem, the major West Bank cities, with no signs of an imminent pullout.

Israeli snipers apparently shot one of the approximately 140 Palestinians barricaded in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Speaking by telephone from inside the church, built on the site revered as Jesus’ birthplace, Bethlehem Gov. Mohammed Madani issued an urgent call to the Israelis to allow in a medical team to save the dying man. But the Palestinian militia member, Hassan Nasman, died.

Madani said he noticed increased activity by Israeli forces outside the church, prompting fears that they might initiate a commando raid to free about 80 priests, monks and nuns inside.

The question of whether Powell would meet with Arafat was decided after what appeared to be a subtly choreographed sequence of events, according to Palestinian, Arab and U.S. officials. The diplomatic drama offered a microcosm of the complex challenges Powell faces--and the nuanced solutions they required.

To reporters traveling with Powell, there was little doubt that the secretary would meet with the Palestinian leader. Pressure had been building on Powell during four earlier legs of his trip to end hints about looking for alternative leadership because Arafat had been holding back on reining in the extremists both inside and outside his movement.

In part because of their own constituencies, Arab leaders made it clear that they were not prepared to support any U.S. peace effort that might exclude the grand old man of Palestinian politics, who is now a hero throughout the Arab world. Arafat also has widespread support in Europe.

But the bombing Friday by an 18-year-old seamstress suddenly made it awkward for Powell to travel the next day to see Arafat, a move labeled “a tragic mistake” by Sharon even before the attack, without some catalyst to make it acceptable--namely, a formal renunciation of violence.

In meetings just hours before the bombing, U.S. officials already insisted that the time was long past for Arafat to do something about the escalating attacks. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher had also traveled to Ramallah on Friday to press Arafat to issue a blanket condemnation and begin taking steps to end extremist attacks.

But the Palestinians insisted that Arafat needed to consult with his senior advisors to discuss and draft a statement that would meet the various demands. The delay in Arafat’s statement was due to problems in arranging for his aides to get through the tight Israeli cordon around the battered compound, according to Hassan Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian representative in Washington. Those consultations didn’t occur until Saturday.

In exchange for their condemnation of the violence, moreover, the Palestinians wanted a statement from the United States acknowledging the impact of Israeli attacks on Palestinian civilians, according to Rahman and other Palestinians.

“Palestinian public opinion is very resentful that Palestinians have to condemn violence while Israel is getting away with murder. This makes Palestinians and the Arab public very angry. Do Israelis have greater value than Palestinians? Or are we equal?” Rahman asked in an interview Saturday.

Witness accounts of widespread destruction, humanitarian crises and civilian hardships in West Bank villages have been mounting. The 2-week-old Israeli incursion has subjected Palestinian civilians to “collective punishment,” Rene Kosirnik of the International Committee of the Red Cross told Powell on Saturday.

“The whole population should not suffer so much,” Kosirnik told reporters after meeting with Powell.

So the solution unfolded Saturday in a sequence of statements.

Powell Meets With Aid Groups

After meeting with humanitarian aid groups involved with Palestinian refugees, Powell called on Israel to exercise the “utmost restraint and discipline” to ensure that civilians were protected and to “avoid worsening the already grave conditions inside Palestinian areas.”

Powell also called on the Israeli government to allow international humanitarian aid groups unimpeded access to Palestinian areas and to permit them to provide basic services, including care for the victims of the Israeli incursion.

Three hours later, the Palestinian news agency issued a statement saying that Arafat and the Palestinian leadership “condemn all terrorist acts, whether they are aimed at Israeli or Palestinian civilians and whether these terrorist acts are carried out by a state, groups or individuals.”

Arafat’s statement was released on Palestinian television as well as on the Al Jazeera network broadcast throughout the Arab world, at least partially fulfilling a long-standing demand by the United States.

Powell then huddled with his aides at the David Citadel Hotel, which had witnessed a suicide bombing in December. The bomber’s head was flung through a hotel window, and blood was splattered on the exterior walls. The attack injured five people.

Almost five hours after Arafat’s statement was released, Boucher summoned American reporters to issue an announcement that the Powell-Arafat meeting was back on.

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Times staff writer T. Christian Miller contributed to this report.