The State Department's top Middle East diplomat, William Burns, left Washington for Egypt, first stop on his tour of the Middle East to advance President George W. Bush's three-part strategy for peace in the region.
"We have no illusions about the difficulties ahead," Secretary of State Colin Powell said in a statement late Tuesday.
"Progress must be made on all three tracks of our strategy if a lasting end to Israeli-Palestinian violence and progress toward our vision of two states - Israel and Palestine -- living side-by-side in peace and security can be realized," he added.
Burns' trip to the Middle East "will start in Egypt" on Wednesday, a senior US official said, adding the dates for the other stops on his itinerary were not yet fixed. After Egypt, the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs will go to Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon.
Focusing on reform of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority, "Burns will consult on how best to support serious efforts on the institution-building and political tracks," Powell said in his statement.
Burns' trip will precede that of Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet who will be looking at ways to reorganize the Palestinian Authority's security establishment.
Before leaving Rome for Washington late Tuesday, Bush and Powell said Tenet would leave on his mission later this week, possibly on Friday. According to AFP, Bush told reporters he wanted to speak with Tenet before dispatching him to the region and would do so on Wednesday.
"Before Tenet leaves, I do want to go back and visit with him ... and, at an appropriate time, we'll announce his schedule," the president said. "There needs to be the implementation of institutions necessary for a state to evolve and that's exactly what our strategy is and that's what we're going to work on," he said.
"The first step is to make sure that there's a security force in place that keeps the security," Bush said. (Albawaba.com)
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