US Mideast envoy Mitchell arrives in Morocco

RABAT: US special envoy George Mitchell arrived in Rabat on Monday to meet with Moroccan officials before heading to the Middle East later in the week, officials said. Details of his visit here were not released, but according to Morocco s official news agency MAP, Mitchell will meet with several officials including Foreign Minister Taieb Fassi Fihri. US State Department spokesman Robert Wood gave no details about Mitchell s Middle East stops beyond what he gave last week about his plans to meet officials from Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, the Gulf and North Africa. It will be Mitchell s first visit to the region since Israel s right-leaning Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office. He s going to advance the goal of the two-state solution in the Middle East. But when we have some more details with regard to his travel … we ll be happy to get them to you, Wood said. Wood said on April 6 that the former US senator and architect of Northern Ireland s peace agreement aims to advance the goal of the two-state solution and comprehensive peace in the region. Netanyahu, who was also prime minister from 1996 to 1999, has never voiced support for the creation of a Palestinian state, a principle which Israel agreed to under a 2003 international roadmap. Netanyahu s firebrand foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said Israel is committed to the roadmap but not the US-backed 2007 agreement reached in Annapolis, Maryland that set a goal of a peace agreement by the end of 2008. US President Barack Obama, however, in a major address to the Turkish parliament last week, threw his support behind the Annapolis process. It will be Mitchell s third visit to the Middle East since he was named by Obama. Mitchell last visited the region in late February before Netanyahu took office. A senior State Department official said later that Mitchell was not planning to visit Syria when asked if he would make a stop there. Last week, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said Syria is ready to resume indirect peace talks with the new Israeli government on the basis of a total pullout from the Golan Heights. -AFP