U.S. Security Coordinator Expected to Visit Mideast
Reuters
Date: 02-11-05
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. general named to help Palestinians reform their security forces and to promote security cooperation with Israel will probably visit the Middle East this month, the State Department said on Friday.
Army Lt. Gen. William Ward met Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) at the State Department on Friday to discuss his mission, a sign of efforts to advance Israeli-Palestinian peace following the death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat (news - web sites).
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has pledged to crack down on violence against Israelis but rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian militants on Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites) on Thursday demonstrated the difficulty of his task.
State Department officials who asked not to be named said Ward's itinerary was not yet fixed but could include Egypt and Jordan as well as Israel and the Palestinian territories.
"Before the end of the month he would go out there, establish contact with the players -- not only the parties themselves but also the regional players -- (and) start looking at how to build Palestinian security services that can handle the violence," Boucher told reporters at his daily briefing.
The spokesman said Ward would also look at "other ways to ensure that current steps to try to end the violence are made more effective and ... how we and others can support that."
Boucher said the U.S. aim was to strengthen the security forces under Abbas' control so they can take on the militants.
"What we're really all talking about is helping the Palestinian security forces get organized, get equipped, get trained, and get the command structure that allows them to take care of security problems," he said.
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