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Colin Powell: Positive developments in Mideast
(CNN) -- Palestinians driving Monday along the main north-south road in Gaza were no longer subject to Israeli checkpoints, and Israeli troops have withdrawn from northern Gaza after Palestinian militant groups announced a three-month cease-fire. CNN Anchor Heidi Collins spoke Monday with Secretary of State Colin Powell, and asked him about the significance of the Israeli withdrawal. POWELL: I think it is significant and it's a positive development. As you know, under the road map, both sides had obligations. On the Israeli side, they were releasing Palestinian prisoners, starting to take down the unauthorized outposts, and on the Palestinian side, we were expecting them to assume responsibility for Gaza. That has now happened and I'm pleased that both sides have started these reciprocal steps, but we have a long way to go and we hope that those organizations who have now said they would not conduct terrorist activities -- they have declared a cease-fire -- realize that it is an opportunity for peace and that they stick to those cease-fires. But the cease-fires alone are not enough. We're expecting the Palestinian Authority to take control of the territories entrusted back to their care and make sure that cease-fire or no cease-fire, declared by the various parties, that no terrorist activity is directed against Israel. We've got to bring that to an end in order for there to be continued progress with the road map, but this is a very positive development. COLLINS: Israel today also handed over control of the north-south highway running through Gaza for the Palestinians there. How important is that for the actual Palestinian people who are using that road every day to go to work? What does it mean to them? POWELL: It is very important. It means that a trip that might have taken half a day will now only take half an hour or an hour. It allows commerce and activity to start up again in the Gaza Strip. It will make it easier to cross over into other parts of the area. Kids can go to school. So it facilitates movement and I hope the people living in Gaza will recognize that the road map brought this about. Reciprocal action on both sides is going to make their lives a little bit better. I hope this will be a signal to them that they, too, should now join in the process by condemning violence and realizing that a better life awaits them if we continue moving down the path laid out by the road map. COLLINS: With the Israeli troops withdrawing from Gaza, is it possible that the West Bank is next? POWELL: We're going to start moving into the West Bank. Bethlehem will be the next location where we hope we'll be able to get a turnover and in the not too distant future. Discussions will begin right away on Bethlehem and we hope that this will spread across the entire West Bank. Israel does not want to remain in those cities. It is very expensive for Israel to do so, and does not lead us toward peace. So let us hope this is the beginning of a process, but it's a process that will continue only if no terror or violence comes out of these areas that are now being turned over to Palestinian security forces. So the message we have been giving to the Palestinian Authority is that they have to reconstitute their capability, they have to cooperate with the Israeli side, and they have to work closely with the American monitoring group under Ambassador John Wolf who is in the region to make sure we keep this moving in a positive direction. COLLINS: How much of this peace process is based on trust and specifically between [Israeli Prime Minister] Ariel Sharon and [Palestinian Prime Minister] Mahmoud Abbas? POWELL: Ultimately, it's all based on trust. Ultimately, these two leaders, these two entities, the Palestinian Authority and the state of Israel have to rebuild confidence and trust in one another. We're talking about people's lives. We're talking about innocent people dying as a result of terrorist activity. So we can help. We can put in place road maps and put in place monitoring groups, but ultimately trust has to be developed between the two sides. We're not interested just in a cease-fire or just in an opening. We're interested ultimately in a political settlement that will bring into being a Palestinian state that will live side-by-side in peace with the state of Israel. COLLINS: Does Mahmoud Abbas have that power to do what he needs to do in this case? POWELL: We are trying to empower him in all of the steps that we have taken, and I think the Israeli side is trying to do the same thing as well. All the steps we have taken are to empower him, to show the Palestinian people that it is Prime Minister Abbas who succeeded in working with the Israelis and, with the assistance of America and the so-called quartet, that got Gaza back into Palestinian hands and gave them an improved situation in Gaza. So we hope with these actions, the Palestinian people will realize that Prime Minister Abbas is producing for them, and thereby, they will empower him even further.
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