WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Colin Powell is urging Israel and the Palestinians to end their fighting unconditionally and asking world leaders to help cool passions.
With violence rocking the region, and bloodshed mounting, Powell declared Friday: ``What we need now, more than anything else, is a cessation of violence by all.''
He said terrorist groups, such as the one that sent a suicide bomber Friday against an Israeli market, may be beyond control. But Powell said leaders in the area and elsewhere should speak out more directly against violence and ``do everything they can to control passions'' in the Middle East.
He issued his call for cessation of violence during a news conference at the State Department with Russia's visiting foreign minister, Igor Ivanov.
The bombing Friday in Netanya, Israel, prompted Israel to send warplanes into retaliatory action on the West Bank and Gaza. The day's events pushed the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to new heights.
Hamas, a militant rebel group, claimed responsibility for the Netanya bombing. Powell agreed Hamas might be beyond the immediate control of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, whose security outposts were among reprisal targets of the Israelis.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon telephoned Powell in midafternoon. A State Department official said they talked about the violence; about a report by a fact-finding commission by former Senate Democratic leader George Mitchell that proposed a cease-fire; and about how the Israelis and Palestinians eventually can return to negotiations.
With evident distress, Powell said, ``All of our lives have been made more difficult by this situation.''
Admitting he was at a loss for a guaranteed formula to stop the bloodletting, he said ``we continue to look for solutions'' and expressed the wish for ``a new kind of activity that could be helpful.''
Continuing, in a tone of frustration, Powell said, ``At the moment, we are trapped in this cycle of violence, and if there was any solution that I could come up with, any conference or meeting that could be held right away that might move this in such a direction, I would leap at it.''
In its early weeks, the Bush administration stepped back from involvement in peacemaking. But as violence escalated and the killing continued, the administration has assumed a more activist stance to end the fighting. The idea is that once the violence recedes, the focus again can turn to bringing the two parties back to a negotiating table.
Powell said he had no plans to meet with Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Such a session had been under discussion.
In New York, the Palestinian mission to the United Nations said in a statement: ``The present volatility of the situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, including Jerusalem, is caused partly by Israeli settlement activities aimed at colonizing the Palestinian land.''
On the Net: State Department's Near East desk:
http://www.state.gov/p/nea/
©The Associated Press May 19 2001 1:04AM