AFP: US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice left here Saturday for Washington, following a six-day visit to the Middle East and London.
LONDON, Oct 7, 2006 (AFP) – US Secretary of State Condolezza Rice left here Saturday for Washington, following a six-day visit to the Middle East and London.
Rice traveled first to Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia and to Cairo to try to rally eight moderate Arab governments to fight extremism and terrorism in the Middle East.
She then visited Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ramallah, where she expressed support for the moderate president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmud Abbas, and obtained limited Israeli commitments to ease the humanitarian plight of the Palestinians.
Rice later made a suprise visit to Iraq to support the national reconciliation plans of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki before arriving in London for talks on the Iran nuclear crisis.