United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a flying viisit to Beirut, said on Monday she wanted to back Lebanon’s democratic institutions.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday pressed Israel to ease travel restrictions on Palestinians and called Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank ”particularly problematic”. But she said Washington believed an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal was still possible before US President George Bush leaves office in January.
The United States on Thursday released photographs of what it said was a Syrian nuclear reactor built with North Korean help, in an effort to pressure Pyongyang to fully disclose its nuclear activities. Israel destroyed the reactor in a September 6 air strike that was initially shrouded in secrecy.
Contract workers for the United States State Department improperly viewed Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s passport records three times this year in what his campaign called ”an outrageous breach” of his privacy. The incidents, which occurred on January 9, February 21 and March 14, were quickly reported to lower-level State Department officials.
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/ 18 December 2007
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, on a visit overshadowed by a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, called on Iraqi leaders on Tuesday to urgently implement a national reconciliation roadmap. Turkish troops crossed overnight into the Iraqi Kurdish province of Dahuk, about 200km from the city of Kirkuk, where Rice’s plane first touched down.
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/ 28 November 2007
United States President George Bush has set himself the herculean task of shepherding an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal by the end of next year, but doubts remain about his commitment. Talks on borders, settlements, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees — are to begin on December 12.
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/ 31 October 2007
Major powers plan to meet in London this week to discuss new sanctions on Iran amid a spat between Washington and the United Nations over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, United States officials said on Tuesday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech on Tuesday that Iran would not retreat in the dispute.
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/ 19 October 2007
The battle over the agenda of a conference on Palestinian statehood offers United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a glimpse of the gruelling process that awaits if and when the two sides enter formal negotiations. Four days of shuttle diplomacy by Rice this week were not enough to close the gaps.
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/ 10 September 2007
The top United States commander in Iraq on Monday said the number of US troops in Iraq could be cut by next summer to roughly 130 000, its level before this year’s ”surge” of 30 000 forces. General David Petraeus also strongly endorsed US President George Bush’s decision to add forces this year.
United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Israel and the West Bank this month to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace, making her first trip to the region since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. An official said Rice hoped to ”move forward” on Israeli-Palestinian peace.