US Secretary of State Colin Powell ended his peace mission yesterday with little to show apart from a pledge from Israel to end its reoccupation of battered West Bank cities within "a week or so."
A furious Yasser Arafat said Israeli troop pullbacks were a sham and one of the Palestinian leader's aides accused Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of torpedoing Powell's efforts.
Israel blamed Arafat for refusing to sign a ceasefire, but Powell told a news conference the term could become relevant only after the Jewish state ends the offensive it launched on March 29 after suicide attacks that killed scores of Israelis.
Powell said the US was "disappointed" with Arafat's performance in fighting violence, adding that he had told the president that his Palestinian Authority "must decide, as the rest of the world has decided, that terrorism must end."
Powell arrived in Jerusalem last Thursday to reinforce US President George W. Bush's demands for an immediate Israeli pullout from West Bank cities, action by Arafat to halt violence and agreement from both sides to revive peace talks.
Effectively dropping the US insistence on an immediate withdrawal, Powell said he had stressed to Sharon the urgency of completing the pullout.
Powell, who later left for Cairo on his way home, pledged to return to the region, but set no date.
In the meantime, US envoy William Burns would stay, CIA Director George Tenet could come and another envoy, Anthony Zinni, would be back soon to promote security talks aimed at "not just a statement of a ceasefire but the reality of a ceasefire."
Dore Gold, a senior adviser to Sharon, said Powell's main achievement was to get a withdrawal timeline from Sharon.
"That's a clear, tangible accomplishment. Unfortunately Yasser Arafat has not reciprocated," he told CNN.
Arafat, speaking after a final round of talks with Powell, raged at Israel for confining him to his Ramallah headquarters.
"I have to ask the whole international world, I have to ask President Bush, I have to ask the United Nations, is this acceptable that I can't go outside from this door?"
Arafat has been stuck in his ravaged compound in Ramallah surrounded by tanks since the outset of Israel's offensive.
He told reporters Israel had announced troop withdrawals from two West Bank cities, only to return, and were also making "shameful attacks" on Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity. "They have not withdrawn. As you remember, they had mentioned Tulkarm and Qalqilya but they returned back," he said.
Israeli forces left the two cities last Tuesday, but staged an incursion in Tulkarm a week later. Tanks still ring Qalqilya and thrust into two more West Bank villages yesterday.
In Bethlehem, troops are locked in a lengthy standoff with Palestinians trapped in the Church of the Nativity. Israel has vowed not to storm it, but says militants inside must surrender.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the situation was much worse than when Powell had arrived. "It is very unfortunate that every effort exerted by the secretary was torpedoed by Sharon," he told reporters in Ramallah.
Sharon said on Monday troops would quit the devastated cities of Nablus and Jenin within a week, but would stay in Ramallah and Bethlehem until militants said to be in Arafat's compound and the Church of the Nativity surrendered.
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