Powell Visits Lebanon, Syria to Call for Peace

DAMASCUS, Syria —  Secretary of State Colin L. Powell traveled to Damascus and Beirut on Monday for talks aimed at averting a wider Middle East war, and the United States explored the possibility of holding a conference to forge a final peace among Israelis, Palestinians and moderate Arabs.

Powell, on a high-stakes mission to defuse 18 days of heightened hostilities since an Israeli offensive began in the West Bank, appeared to run into initial setbacks on both fronts.

In a move welcomed by the Bush administration, however, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he plans to pull troops and tanks out of the West Bank cities of Jenin and Nablus in a week or less.

Sharon told President Bush about his plans when the American leader called him from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, before a Republican fund-raiser. Bush regarded Israel’s move as positive, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said.

“You’re starting to see the results of the secretary’s hard work,” he added.

But Sharon said in an interview with CNN that Israel plans to remain in the West Bank around the headquarters of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Ramallah and at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem until standoffs over wanted gunmen have been resolved.

In Ramallah on Monday, Israel arrested Marwan Barghouti, the leader of Arafat’s Fatah faction and the man Israel holds responsible for dozens of attacks. Sharon said Barghouti will be put on trial.

Meanwhile, witnesses in Tulkarm said Israeli tanks swept in from several directions early today in what an Israeli military source described as “a limited operation to arrest Palestinian militants,” the Reuters news agency reported.

A delay in full withdrawal of Israeli forces could complicate Powell’s mission, since the U.S. is still searching for the key to breaking the deadlock. As the secretary is finding at every stop, each issue he addresses comes back to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Powell spent most of the day Monday calling on the leaders of Syria and Lebanon to rein in Hezbollah and Palestinian extremists who have launched almost daily attacks across the Lebanese border into Israel and the Golan Heights, which was captured by Israel from Syria. The attacks have coincided with the Israeli army’s current operations against the Palestinians in the West Bank.

Israel has threatened a serious military response if the attacks do not subside.

“There is a very real danger of the situation along the border widening the conflict in the region,” Powell said in Beirut after talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. “It is essential for all those committed to peace to act immediately to stop actions across the border.”

The United States asked Lebanon to increase military deployment in southern areas. “If they could have an increased presence in the south, that might serve as a deterring effect and give them more indications and knowledge about what’s going on in south Lebanon,” Powell told reporters.

The secretary then called on Syria, which along with Iran has significant influence over Hezbollah, to restrain the militia.

Powell said he had “reasonable assurances” that Lebanon and Syria recognize the potential repercussions from the attacks. And he noted that Lebanon had arrested 24 Palestinians linked to attacks on civilian areas in northern Israel.

“Both said that they would do what they could do to restrain activity of that type,” Powell said. However, the secretary also faces strong public opinion, long-standing government policies in the region and a well-entrenched militia. At a news conference in Beirut, he acknowledged that he faced “strong criticism.”

Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud charged that Israel is responsible for the escalation in violence because it “blocked all efforts seeking peace and rejected international resolutions that demand its withdrawal from all occupied Arab territories.”

Lebanon also has a border dispute with Israel regarding the Golan’s Shabaa Farms, against which many of the Hezbollah attacks have been launched. Lebanon considers Hezbollah’s attacks the final resistance to Israeli occupation.

Hezbollah pledged to continue its campaign.

“The American administration tries . . . to give the image of a mediator in search of political solutions, when everyone knows it is a partner in all the crimes and massacres that the Zionist enemy is carrying out against the Palestinian people,” it said in a statement.

Thousands of Hezbollah supporters protested in the streets of Beirut. As Powell’s armored convoy sped through the Lebanese capital, demonstrators who were held out of sight by police chanted, “We loathe America. Powell, get out of here. The Palestinian people are being exterminated by an American decision. America is the leader of terrorism in the world.”

Syria’s official news agency issued a statement blaming Israel for the violence and saying it would be better to “eradicate the causes rather than waste time condemning” attacks.

Syrian President Bashar Assad does not have a great deal of credibility with the Bush administration. During Powell’s only other visit to Syria about 14 months ago, Assad promised to curtail illegal oil shipments by Iraq. Instead, they have continued, and U.S. officials say that link now provides Baghdad with its largest source of illegal income.

“We’ll be watching very closely to see if they’re true to their word,” said a senior State Department official traveling with Powell.

Israel has already warned of the consequences if attacks do not end.

“The leaders of these two countries have not taken our messages seriously. We have made it clear that the current situation cannot continue,” Sharon told the Israeli parliament Sunday. Israel is still capable of striking a “heavy blow,” he said.

Powell returned to Israel late Monday to try to bridge the wide gap between Israel and the Palestinians. The secretary confirmed that the administration is working on organizing a regional or international conference of Israel and Arab nations.

“The conference in and of itself isn’t a solution, but it’s a way to get the parties together and talking,” Powell told reporters en route back to Israel. “Prime Minister Sharon gave some endorsement to that kind of idea, and Chairman Arafat did as well.”

To get around Sharon’s prohibiting Arafat from attending any conference, Powell is probing the idea of holding a meeting at a lower level.

“It does not necessarily require his personal presence to get started, and in fact one model one could consider is a ministerial-level conference, not necessarily heads of state or government,” he said.

The Bush administration is considering venues in Europe, the Middle East and the United States, and there is no firm list of possible participants, U.S. officials said. The idea of a conference is just one of several ideas being studied for seeking agreement on security and reaching a political settlement.

But both Lebanon and Syria insisted that Arafat should be included in any conference on the future of a Palestinian state or an Israeli-Arab peace. And Palestinian officials are already questioning the idea of excluding him.

Hassan Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian representative in Washington, said no conference could take place until Israel ends its incursion into the West Bank.

Powell will hold more talks with Sharon today and with Arafat on Wednesday.

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Times staff writer Edwin Chen in Washington contributed to this report.