Secretary of State Colin Powell has created a two-front test for his plan to improve U.S. relations in the Middle East while weakening Saddam Hussein’s military strength. Mr. Powell’s plan to ease general sanctions against Iraq but tighten others is being met with caution among Arabs and skepticism at home, including within the Bush administration.

But his proposal is worth pursuing. Certainly, 10 years after the Gulf War ended, Mr. Hussein seems unaffected by the shortages, but an increasing number of countries are responding to desperate situations of average Iraqi citizens by ignoring the original sanctions. During his tour last week of Arab countries – Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Syria – Mr. Powell appeared to find weariness at the U.S. focus on punishing the Iraqi president but interest in restraining the Iraqi leader militarily. Mr. Powell wants to lift sanctions on goods that might benefit the civilian population and on such goods as refrigeration trucks that could have civilian and military use (transporting material for biological weapons), but he also wants new support for stopping shipments of clearly military supplies.

Mr. Powell reported that King Abdullah of Jordan expressed conditional support; he wants money to help secure Jordan’s border with Iraq. Syria agreed to stop sending revenues that Mr. Hussein was receiving from oil flowing through Syrian pipelines and placed it in a U.N. escrow account. Egypt reportedly did not want to commit to the idea. No one would expect negotiations for reformed sanctions to be settled in the secretary’s first trip through the region, but Mr. Powell’s stature there should help keep these talks going.

He will need to exert similar influence at home, where Bush officials, including Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, are said to prefer arming Iraqi opponents over another try at sanctions. Dr. Paul Wolfowitz, Mr. Rumsfeld’s recently nominated deputy, wrote in 1999 that “the United States, should be prepared to commit ground forces to protect a sanctuary in southern Iraq where the opposition could safely mobilize.” That is a step that Iraq’s neighbors would view with alarm, might draw sympathy for Mr. Hussein and would make the Palestinian question much more difficult to solve.

Mr. Powell’s more measured approach, and his emphasis on strengthening a coalition before taking military action are the better way to proceed. As much as the United States would like to declare victory by putting together a force that would end in Mr. Hussein being tossed out of power or killed, Mr. Powell is properly pursuing is arms control – a difficult goal under the best circumstances.