18 September 2001Excerpt: Powell "Encouraged" after Talking with Sharon, Peres, Arafat
(Israeli, Palestinian leaders making efforts to reduce violence) (300) Secretary of State Colin Powell said he spoke by telephone with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat September 18 and was encouraged by their statements about making efforts to reduce violence. Powell commented about the Middle East during a brief press conference in Washington September 18 with visiting South Korean Foreign Minister Han Seung-Soo. Following is an excerpt with Powell's comments about the Middle East from the transcript of the Powell-Han press conference: (begin excerpt) I might also note that in the course of the morning, I have spoken to Prime Minister Sharon and to Chairman Arafat and to Foreign Minister Peres over the developments in the Middle East over the last 12 hours. Chairman Arafat has issued some strong, positive statements with respect to the situation in the region and the efforts he will be making to reduce, eliminate the violence, and I am pleased that Foreign Minister Peres and Prime Minister Sharon affirmed to me that they would be doing everything on their side to disengage from the opportunities for conflict with the Palestinians in specific towns and cities so as to have sort of a separation that might encourage a state of nonviolence. And so this is an encouraging development. I hope both sides can take advantage of this encouraging development and it will lead to additional meetings. We have also encouraged commanders on both sides to talk to one another and we are looking at the beginning of Security Committee dialogue once again. So we have some promise this morning, and let's hope that we can see some developments that will continue this sense of promise that is with us this morning. (end excerpt) (Distributed by the Office of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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