QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, thanks for doing this. A State Department official says, and I quote, that an accidental meeting or handshake between President Bush and Yasser Arafat could take place during the UN General Assembly in New York. What's that about?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, there is no plan for President Bush to meet with Chairman Arafat. If Chairman Arafat is in New York this weekend, I hope that I will be able to meet with him and we're working on that, so that we can continue our discussions about how we can get closer to a cease-fire and then get into the Mitchell peace plan process that will lead to negotiations. But there are no plans for the President and Mr. Arafat to meet.
QUESTION: I'm sure you're aware that there are reports circulating that the administration will be making a "major announcement" about the Palestinian question. Can you tell us anything about that?
SECRETARY POWELL: The President may touch on it in his speech tomorrow at the United Nations, but it won't be a comprehensive statement. We are looking at a comprehensive statement that we might make in the not-too-distant future.
QUESTION: Mr. Secretary, in your judgment, would US support for a Palestinian state be of an advantage to us in our present war effort?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, yes, I think it would, and I think it is. President Bush is the first Republican president to put it on the record that his vision includes a Palestinian state. Mr. Sharon has said the same thing. Foreign Minister Peres says it regularly, and I have said it on a number of occasions.
QUESTION: In the present circumstance, taking everything into account, what will that do to our relationship with Israel?
SECRETARY POWELL: Well, I think it would improve our relationship with Israel. Because this Palestinian state would have to come into being by mutual agreement between the two sides in order for it to be viable, and that would suggest that the process is moving forward to the point where trust has been rebuilt, confidence has been rebuilt between the two sides and the level of violence has gone down to some very de minimus level so that they can move forward and accept some of the risks that might come with this arrangement.
QUESTION: If you could get Yasser Arafat to do one thing right away, what would it be?
SECRETARY POWELL: If I could get Mr. Arafat to do one thing -- and it depends on whether it is in his power or not to do this one thing, and there is debate about that -- is to end all the violence right away, and that would give us the circumstances and conditions that we could then say to the Israelis, fine, it's now time to begin all of the opening so that Palestinians can get to places of work, increase the level of confidence between the two sides, and get back to peace negotiations.
QUESTION: And if you could have Ariel Sharon do one thing just like that, what would that be?
SECRETARY POWELL: Right now, we have asked them to do one thing, and that is to as quickly as possible -- immediately if possible -- he will have to make that judgment, but immediately get the Israeli defense forces to withdraw from the Area A villages. They have made quite a bit of progress over the last week in doing that and I hope that, in the next several days, they will be able to remove their forces from those two remaining villages.
QUESTION: Secretary Powell, thank you very much.
SECRETARY POWELL: Thank you, Dan.