The U.S. State Department announced that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is scheduled to visit the Middle East later this week, in a new bid to prod the sluggish Middle East peace process.
Rice will travel to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Egypt from Nov. 5 to 9, marking her 19th visit to the region in two years, and her eighth shuttle diplomacy trip to the hot spot since the U.S.-hosted peace conference in Annapolis last November when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resumed the long-stalled peace talks and pledged to reach a comprehensive peace agreement by the end of 2008.
Following is a chronology of Rice's previous visits to the region since the Annapolis conference:
Aug. 25-26, 2008: Rice meets with Olmert in Jerusalem and with Abbas in Ramallah, and holds a three-way meeting with the chief negotiators from the two sides, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.
Rice insists that progress has been made despite difficulties, reiterating that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal is still possible within 2008.
Meanwhile, Rice urges Israel to halt the confidence-undermining settlement activity in the West Bank, saying that settlement activity is not conducive to creating an environment for the two sides to reach understandings.
June 14-16, 2008: Rice meets with Olmert in Jerusalem and with Abbas in Ramallah, and holds two three-way meetings, respectively with Livni and Qurei, and with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.
The former trio mainly focuses on the negotiating process, while the latter on the blockade Israel imposed on the Palestinians. Rice says Israel's continued settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are hindering the peace negotiations.
May 14-16, 2008: Rice accompanies U.S. President George W. Bush on a visit to Israel to celebrate the Jewish state's 60th anniversary.
Bush pledges unbreakable ties with and firm security support for Israel, while merely envisioning that the Palestinians will have the homeland they have long dreamed of. Rice says shortly before the visit that reaching a peace deal within 2008 might be improbable, but is not impossible.
May 3-5, 2008: Rice meets separately with leaders of the two neighbors and holds two three-way meetings as during her June visit. Rice underscores the negative impact of the settlement activities on the peace process and urges Israel to take steps to improve the lives of the Palestinians, while impelling the Palestinian side to take further actions to meet Israel's security demands.
March 29-31, 2008: Rice meets with Olmert in Jerusalem and with Abbas in Amman, and holds two three-way meetings with Israeli and Palestinian officials.
This visit highlights Rice's efforts to prod the Israeli side to facilitate the daily lives of the Palestinians.
Abbas agrees to meet with Olmert on April 7, their first tete-a-tete since Abbas suspended the biweekly meetings with Olmert at the beginning of March in protest against a week-long Israeli strike on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip that left more than 120 people killed and around 400 wounded.
March 4-5, 2008: Rice meets with Olmert, Barak and Livni in Jerusalem and with Abbas, Qurei and another Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat in Ramallah. The two sides promise to resume the peace negotiations, which was halted following deadly Israeli operations in Gaza.
Jan. 9-11, 2008: Rice accompanies Bush on his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories. During the first tour to the area since he took office in 2000, Bush calls for an end to Israel's "occupation" of the West Bank, and urges both sides to make painful political concessions in order to secure a peace treaty before he leaves office in January 2009.
Source:Xinhua
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