WASHINGTON, April 12 (UPI) -- The White House insisted Friday Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat condemn Friday's suicide bombing and renounce terrorism as Secretary of State Colin Powell reconsidered his scheduled meeting with the Arab leader.
The bomb attack near a market killed at least six people and injured dozens more. It happened shortly before Powell was due to leave Jerusalem for a tour of the Lebanese border. The helipad Powell was to use is about a mile from the blast, and Powell's helicopter flew over the site.
The Secretary of State was dispatched to the region to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders and attempt to broker a cease-fire, leading eventually to a resumption of talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in a meeting with Powell Friday, failed to provide a firm timetable for withdrawing Israeli troops, a key objective of the Powell trip.
White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer described President George W. Bush as being "very troubled" by the bomb attack, saying that Powell's mission has "some flexibility" from the president to do what needs to be done to achieve peace.
"The president believes that if Yasser Arafat meant what he committed (to) in the Oslo accords to renounce terrorism, then today would be a particularly apt day for him to publicly express himself in a denunciation of this terrorist attack and to show leadership," Fleischer said.
So disturbed is the White House about the repeated attacks that Fleischer said Thursday they ought to be called "homicide bombings," not "suicide bombings -- since the attackers intended to kill.
Earlier in the day, Bush vowed he would remain undeterred by the attack and said he would continue to seek a political solution to violence in the region.
Although the White House declined to say what consequences Arafat could face if he does not denounce terrorism, one official said Fleischer's statements indicate Powell may be reconsidering his highly anticipated meeting with the Arab leader, who has been under siege in his compound in Ramallah since last month.
Bush demanded April 4 that Israel halt its incursion into Palestinian occupied territories. On March 29, Sharon ordered a military offensive, pushing Israeli forces into Arab cities and towns along the West Bank. Among them was Jenin, considered a haven for Islamic extremists.
Bush's demand turned more insistent April 6, while hosting British Prime Minister Tony Blair at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he said that Israeli forces should begin withdrawing "without delay." But as the week unfolded, Sharon made it defiantly clear that Israel would stick to its own timetable for withdrawl.
We shall not leave Jenin, not Nablus, not Ramallah and not Bethlehem ... before there is an arrangement for the terrorists' surrender," he declared Thursday.
