Saudi Arabia - Secretary Rice Travels to Saudi, Region

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Secretary Rice meets with King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia, in Riyadh, February 22, 2006. State Department photo.

Secretary Rice Prepares for Saudi, Region Visit

U.S. State Department Press Statement
Washington, DC
September 28, 2006

Secretary�s Travel to the Middle East

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel and the Palestinian Territories, October 1-5, 2006. At the President�s request, Secretary Rice will lead a diplomatic effort to engage moderate leaders across the region.

In Saudi Arabia the Secretary will meet in Jeddah with Saudi King Abdullah. In Cairo she will meet with President Mubarak and Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit. Later in the trip she will meet with Palestinian Authority President Abbas and with Israeli Prime Minister Olmert and Foreign Minister Livni.

Relevant Discussion from U.S. State Department Briefing - September 28, 2006

MR. MCCORMACK: ..second, the Secretary will be hitting the road starting this coming Sunday, will be traveling next week to the Middle East. She is going to make stops in Saudi Arabia, in Egypt, in Jerusalem and in the Palestinian Authority areas with leaders from -- in those areas. This is a follow-up to the President's task to her as stated in the UN General Assembly speech to go out and consult in the region, consult with those leaders who have a vision for a more moderate, peaceful, democratic, stable and prosperous Middle East, to talk about the various issues that are out there on the table. I would expect Israeli-Palestinian issues certainly would be on the table; the situation in the Middle East; moving forward the democracy agenda in the Middle East; as well as threats to that peace and stability and moderation in the Middle East, for example from Iran and from terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

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QUESTION: The President, if I'm not mistaken, in his speech said that he had tasked her with going out to try to deal particularly with the Israeli-Palestinian issue and to see what progress might be possible. Is it fair to say that that is the central theme of her trip?

MR. MCCORMACK: I'd say it is an important component, an important component of it, and to see what the possibilities are. Again, this, I would characterize more as a trip centered around consultations and really to follow up on some of her conversations that she had at the United Nations over the past couple of weeks and to go to the region and further explore some of the ideas that are out there and to see what the possibilities are; and have her focus with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian issues, really center on the security-related issues to see how we can move that forward; and then also as that relates to existing agreements like the Gaza movement and access agreement, how we might be able to move that forward. But I suspect that this is going to be a trip more about consultations in those areas.

QUESTION: She said in a newspaper interview last week that she thought that there would be -- that we'd see a meeting between Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas in the not-too-distant future. And this morning there were again signs that, you know, at least on the Israeli side that they were looking to do that. Does she have any desire or is she seeking to do a three-way meeting while she is on this trip?

MR. MCCORMACK: No plans for that right now. No plans for that.

Source: U.S. State Dept.

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