Powell Makes the Rounds of Mideast Diplomacy

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell on Monday began a whirl of new Middle East diplomacy, meeting with Israelis and Palestinians and declaring that he had new confidence the two sides would cooperate to arrange the election of a Palestinian Authority president.

On his first visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in 18 months, Powell said the consultations had left him “pleased with the level of coordination and cooperation that exists between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority to make sure the elections can be held.”

“I saw a new attitude,” he later told Israel’s Channel One television.

Powell said the two sides appeared to be settling on steps to ensure that Palestinians will be able to move freely enough within the militarized West Bank to register and vote in the Jan. 9 election.

He also indicated that Israelis will allow Palestinians in Israeli-claimed East Jerusalem to vote through mail-in ballots.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a parliamentary committee direct conversations between the two sides on security issues related to the election would begin within days, according to Israeli news reports on the closed-door meeting.

Later in the day, a key leadership committee of Fatah, the dominant faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization, named Mahmoud Abbas as its candidate to succeed Yasser Arafat, who died Nov. 11, as president of the Palestinian Authority. This makes Abbas, the 69-year-old PLO leader and former prime minister, the early front-runner. He must still gain backing from a broader Fatah committee later this week, but that approval appeared all but certain.

Powell’s visit opened a period of intensified diplomatic activity that comes after many months of near-paralysis.

Later this week, officials from the European Union, Russia and the United Nations are to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories for talks aimed at helping to arrange the election, strengthen the nearly bankrupt Palestinian Authority and prepare for the proposed Israeli withdrawal of settlers and troops from the Gaza Strip.

Next month, two international groups involved in Palestinian reform are to meet in Oslo to discuss ways to help carry out the election, among other topics.

The renewed diplomacy has come about in part because of the death of Arafat, with whom Israel and the U.S. refused to deal for more than two years.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who met with Powell after the secretary of State held an early-morning session with Sharon, told reporters at a news conference that “Israel will do everything in its power to ensure smooth running” of the election.

Palestinian leaders sounded hopeful after Powell met with them and toured an election registration site in the West Bank city of Jericho.

“In all matters we discussed, there was a positive response,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath said. “I think this is a first step.”

Palestinian officials asked for Powell’s help to get Israel to lift travel restrictions, to ensure that East Jerusalem Palestinian voters can cast their ballots and to get financial assistance for their government, which has struggled to meet its payroll.

The officials said the election would be meaningful only if voters from among the 230,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem were allowed to cast ballots. In the last presidential election, held in 1996, Palestinians in East Jerusalem voted by mail under terms of the 1993 Oslo peace accords.

Powell met with a number of Palestinian officials, including Abbas, Shaath, Prime Minister Ahmed Korei, acting President Rouhi Fatouh and veteran negotiator Saeb Erekat.

Afterward, however, Powell appeared alone before the media, out of concern the U.S. not appear to be endorsing any candidate -- with the recognition that such an endorsement could hurt a politician.

Powell said he could make no final commitment on U.S. financial aid, which has been resisted by some congressional conservatives.

But Powell said he would convey to congressional leaders a “message of progress and the encouragement I draw from that message.... I think we can make a pretty good case that this is the time to assist the Palestinians as they move forward.”

Last year, the United States appropriated $20 million in aid for the Palestinian Authority government. The Palestinians need additional money to keep their organization running, conduct the election and reorganize their splintered security services, among other purposes.

Powell said he would take up the matter this morning with other representatives of the so-called “quartet” group that has worked on Palestinian issues -- the U.S., the European Union, the U.N. and Russia -- at Sharm el Sheik, an Egyptian resort that is hosting an international conference on stabilizing Iraq.

Powell was cautious on the subject of Marwan Barghouti, a popular Palestinian leader who is serving five consecutive life terms in an Israeli prison in connection with the deaths of five people, but who could conceivably be elected Palestinian Authority president.

Asked in the Israeli TV interview about the chance Barghouti could be elected, Powell said, “Right now we will have to wait and see who steps forward to be a candidate. The Barghouti problem is a complex one.

“He is in legal custody of the state of Israel,” Powell added, “and that situation is not something that appears to be about to change.”

Asked about Barghouti, Shalom said the Palestinian “was sentenced for life, and he should stay there while he is responsible for the killing ... of so many Israelis.”