"The Mitchell report is acceptable to us in principle. We
had comments, which we conveyed, and they are clear," Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon said. PA Chairman Yasser Arafat
welcomed the report and called for a Middle East summit to
be reconvened to implement its recommendations. Speaking at
a press conference in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell endorsed the report and also announced that
Ambassador to Jordan William Burns will serve as his special
assistant on the conflict. Burns is also designated to
become assistant secretary of state for Near East
affairs.
Powell said that Burns will continue as ambassador to
Jordan, but will also "make himself available to the
parties." He will be reporting to the U.S. Secretary of
State and to the U.S. president about the progress and may
suggest ways for them to become more actively involved.
"When Ambassador Burns is completed with this initial round
of discussions, I will determine what more I might do in a
personal way to promote the process," said Powell.
Powell said that Egyptian-Jordanian proposals for a cease-
fire and fresh negotiations could find a place in the
"implementation plan" Burns will try to lay out. Up to now,
in its first four months, the U.S. Administration has been
emphasizing its differences with the Clinton government by
not appointing anyone to give special attention to the
conflict. The appointment of Burns marks a public change in
that approach.
Minister Without Portfolio Dan Naveh, who coordinated the
government's efforts with the Mitchell Committee, called
Mitchell and expressed Israel's appreciation for his
work.
According to Naveh, Mitchell repeated a number of times
during their conversation that an end to the violence needs
to take place immediately and is not dependent on the
implementation of any other recommendation in the report,
including the settlement freeze.
"The United States is a very strong ally and supporter of
Israel. But even in such close relationships there are
differences of opinion," Senator Mitchell told Reuters.
"Every American administration for the past 25 years has
opposed the actions and policies of the government of Israel
with respect to settlements."
The report also recommends that the PA make clear that
"terrorism is reprehensible and unacceptable" and take
"immediate steps to apprehend and incarcerate terrorists
operating within the PA's jurisdiction."
Mitchell said that "we wish to make clear we do not regard
one recommendation as conditioned upon another. We did not
establish any moral or political equivalence between the
steps."
The Israeli prime minister's spokesman, Ra'anan Gissin, said
that the remarks of the U.S. Secretary of State at the press
conference fell short of an adoption of the Mitchell
Committee's recommendation for a complete freeze of
settlement construction, including for natural growth, and
added that he thinks it is possible for a "bridging
proposal" to be made on the issue that would satisfy all
sides.
One such proposal is the so-called Peres plan, whereby new
settlements would not be established, no land would be
expropriated for building purposes, and construction would
take place only within existing settlements.
However, responding to Arafat's call for a summit to discuss
the report, Gissin said violence has to end before any
summit can be held, and accused the Palestinian side of
"playing games."
"I think the Palestinians are evading the issue," he said.
"There is no need to reconvene the Sharm e-Sheikh forum,
because you first need to stop hostilities. Then, if you
want to convene a meeting, in any place in the world, that's
fine."
Right wing MKs called on Sharon to reject the report
outright, saying that if the government agrees to halt
settlement expansion it would amount to giving a prize for
murder.
