(State Department) Secretary of State Colin Powell told CNN Thursday: "I'm encouraged that Chairman Arafat is no longer there as an obstacle or excuse for people to point to. I'm encouraged in that the Palestinian people have an open, free, fair election, and with the assistance of the Israelis to make it happen....[Abu Mazen] is a good man; we know him well. But he knows and we know and the Israelis know that the Palestinians have to come together now and stand behind their president and insist on a reformed government, an honest government, a government that has a solid security apparatus that will go after these terrorists. It's going to be another tragedy if people who conduct these acts of terror, who shoot mortars out of Gaza or try to get bombs into Israel from the West Bank, are allowed to continue to destroy the peace process and deny the Palestinian people their opportunity to have a state of their own." "The intifada did not accomplish a single thing for the Palestinian people toward their goal of a state of their own. So it has to end, and all of these organizations and individuals and terrorists who continue to kill Israelis or to create conditions of instability are not doing their people a favor. They're denying their people their dream."
2005-01-14 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive