Last update - 00:00 19/01/2007
U.S. Undersecretary of State to visit Middle East this week
By Reuters
United States Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will visit Israel, the Palestinian Authority and the United Arab Emirates over the next week to discuss the Middle East, Iraq, Iran and other issues, the U.S. State Department said on Thursday.
Burns visits Tel Aviv and Jerusalem this weekend for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials several days after a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that sought to test the waters for a new push on Israeli-Palestinian peace.
On Tuesday, Rice spoke to reporters and reiterated that she prefers to see negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at achieving a permanent, rather than provisional, Palestinian state.
"My own view, and I frankly have been telling people this, [is] that if we get to that point, it seems to me that it may be more difficult to negotiate a provisional state than just to go to the end game" of final borders, Rice said. "We're not there yet, and we'll see."
But Rice did not rule out the idea, which Israelis have floated as a way of energizing the stalled peace process.
The State Department said in a statement that Burns' meetings with Israeli officials will also cover Iran, which Washington accuses of pursuing atomic weapons. Iran denies this, saying its program is for power generation.
Burns, who holds the third-ranking job at the State Department, visits Abu Dhabi and Dubai on Monday and Tuesday.
Burns began his trip on Thursday in Ankara, where he was to discuss regional issues with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and stress U.S. support for Turkey's defense against attacks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) separatist group.