Rice Cancels Planned Israel Trip
May 8th, 2007
From The Jerusalem Post:
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has cancelled a trip to Israel planned for next week due to the unstable political situation in Israel, the Foreign Ministry confirmed late Monday night.
Rice was scheduled to meet with Israeli and Palestinian leaders following a stop-off in Moscow.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that the cancellation would not get in the way of US efforts to move forward with Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
“It’s a change in plans, yes,” McCormack admitted, but added that the US would “continue efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian track.”
“The political situation in Israel has become a bit more complex in the near term,” said McCormack.
Tension has risen between government officials following the release of the Winograd’s interim report into the Second Lebanon War. Many government officials have called on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to step down.
On Thursday, 150,000 people participated in a mass demonstration at Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square in an attempt to get Olmert and his government to resign.
Captain Ed reports Olmert has survived three no-confidence votes by wide margins.
However, the populace is still upset over the Winograd report and there could still be violence in the streets, or at least demonstrations that would be distracting to any kind of peace talks.
It could be because Palestinians claim Al Qaeda attacked a Palestinian school dance.
Being in the known immediate vicinity of Al Qaeda would not be very safe for such a high profile person as the Secretary of State.
Written by Jeanette
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