Powell Heads For Mideast

Secretary of State Colin Powell is on his way to the Middle East on a critical peace mission that's taking on a make-or-break urgency for the future of the region.

CBS News Correspondent Joie Chen reports that the administration doesn't expect Powell's visit to do anything as dramatic as bring peace to the region. But there is a clear sense that this is a pivotal moment in the Middle East. Both sides could take a step away from violence and toward peace, or spiral further into hatred.

Powell said that while his aim was to end the violence between the Palestinians and Israelis and get the two sides talking again, he cautioned that he might not return to Washington with a cease-fire agreement.

Before departing, he and other administration officials echoed President Bush's loud and clear message to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that Israel must begin withdrawing its forces from Palestinian areas.

"I'm quite sure he understands that message," Powell said in a televised interview. "And the President is expecting it without delay, meaning now."

But Powell noted that the Israeli leader has yet to set a timetable for a pullback and Bush has not demanded one. "The president doesn't give orders to a sovereign prime minister of another country," Powell said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Yet a day after Mr. Bush urged Sharon in a telephone conversation to pull his army out of the West Bank, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said the President expected the withdrawal to begin immediately.

In the candid conversation with Sharon Saturday, Rice said Mr. Bush used the word "now" several times to drive home the urgency for Israel to begin withdrawing its tanks and troops and warning that delay could undermine the U.S. peace mission.

"The clear message to the Israelis is that we understand that a military mobilization of this kind, an operation of this size, cannot be undone in moments, but the important point is to begin now, without delay. Not tomorrow, not when Secretary Powell gets to the region, but now, to reverse the situation, because there's a lot at stake here," Rice said on CBS News' "Face the Nation."

In spite of the mounting pressure from Washington, Israel's closest ally and provider of $3 billion in annual aid, the Jewish state is widely expected to continue its military offensive until Powell visits Jerusalem later this week.

Sharon told Bush Saturday Israel would do all it could to speed up its military offensive, which it says is intended to halt a wave of suicide bombings on Israelis launched from cities branded by Israel as "breeding grounds for terrorism."

Powell's first meetings this week are with Arab leaders. He wants them to join him in sending a strong message to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

That message was bluntly spelled out by the national security advisor.

"It is high time for everyone to stop showing sympathy for where he is and tell him that he's got to be called to account to do something for his people," Rice said on "Face the Nation." "Because the conditions of his people aren't getting any better while he refuses to act."

When Powell meets with the moderate Arab leaders, they will discuss not only Israel's offensive against the Palestinians, but also how it has raised the pitch of anti-American sentiment throughout the Middle East.

Their language will be more diplomatic, but Arab leaders want Powell to understand the rage behind the chants of "Death to Israel! Death to America!" that have been ringing out across the region in the past week.

Powell meets with three key moderate leaders — Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah — in a mission that begins Monday in Morocco and takes him to Israel to meet with Sharon at the end of the week.

America's top diplomat said he would meet with Arafat, "if circumstances permit" and Rice said the United States expected Powell to "receive the cooperation that he needs to carry out his mission ... to get the parties back on a road to peace."

Ahead of his arrival, some 350,000 demonstrators marched in the Moroccan capital on Sunday to show their support for Palestinians. There were protests elsewhere, including Lebanon, Syria and Bahrain.

The Arab world has been in an uproar since Israel confined Arafat to his compound in the West Bank and began a sweep of Palestinian areas for the militants behind a series of suicide bombings against Israel.

In some cases the protests have been violent.

In Jordan, an 11-year-old Palestinian died Sunday of injuries suffered in a clash between riot police and anti-Israel demonstrators in his refugee settlement.

In Bahrain, the death Sunday of a protester who was hit by a rubber bullet during a demonstration outside the U.S. Embassy prompted another protest through the streets of the Bahraini capital.

In nearly every outburst of anger, Arabs blame the United States as much as Israel, saying the Bush administration has given the Jewish state the green light.

"The demonstrations have put a squeeze on the governments. They are feeling the heat of the protests," said Abdel-Khaleq Abdullah, a political analyst speaking from the United Arab Emirates.

"The rage is phenomenal," said Jamal Khashoggi, deputy editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Arab News. "We see pictures on television we didn't see in previous Arab confrontations with Israel, like Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon."

"What's happening in Palestine is creating suicide-bombers everywhere, not only in Palestine," he added.

Powell was scheduled to meet Monday with Moroccan King Mohammed VI and Saudi Arabia's Abdullah, who has a palace near the city of Casablanca and is currently in Morocco. A senior official in the Bush administration said Powell will warn them they will bear responsibility if terrorism continues.

In a speech last week at the University of Oklahoma, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Washington, said it makes no sense to ask Arafat to "stop the violence in the occupied territories while the Israeli forces are destroying all his security apparatus and killing and detaining his security officers."

"No leader in the world can guarantee 100 percent that no one will resort to violence," Bandar said. "But I can guarantee 100 percent that a desperate and oppressed person whose dignity has been insulted and who is willing to die cannot be stopped by any means."

Emirati political analyst Abdullah said Arab governments have lived up only to the "minimum expectations" of the masses, who want more concrete action, such as an oil embargo, a withdrawal of Arab ambassadors from Washington and other actions that could hurt U.S. economic interests in the region. That position is echoed in letters and opinions pieces across the Arab world.

The analyst Abdullah said the Arab leaders cannot ignore the sentiments on the street and should make it clear to Powell "that a genocide is taking place in Palestine."

"The leaders should hold the president of the United States, the American administration and the Americans politically and morally responsible for this genocide," he said, adding they should point out that the United States will lose "all its interests and friends if it does not do anything."