President Barack Obama plans to dispatch his new Middle East envoy to Palestine next week to meet acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas.
The new US envoy to the Middle East, former senator George Mitchell, will meet with acting Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday in Ramallah, a senior Palestinian official said Saturday.
"Mitchell and Abbas will discuss how to re-launch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process," said the source.
Washington Post reported that Western, Arab and Israeli diplomats said he also plans to meet leaders in Egypt, Israel, and Jordan, but direct contacts with Hamas have been ruled out.
A Western diplomat said Mitchell was likely to go to Saudi Arabia but Syria was not now on his schedule.
US officials in the region declined to confirm Mitchell's visit.
When appointing Mitchell on Thursday, President Barack Obama said he would be sending Mitchell 'to the region as soon as possible'.
The 75-year-old Mitchell helped negotiate the 1998 Good Friday agreement that helped bring peace to Northern Ireland. |