Obama's top security adviser to visit Middle East
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U.S. National Security Adviser James Jones will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian territories, announced the White House on Monday.
"General Jones will discuss the full range of regional challenges and opportunities at this critical time in the Middle East," said National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer.
The spokesman did not specify on the so-called "critical time."
During his meetings with "key leaders" in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Jones is expected to come up with two critical issues, one is the nuclear stalemate in Iran, and the other is the stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
Jones' Mideast tour came as the Obama administration has been trying to implement dual-track diplomacy in the region -- resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and putting sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambition.
Diplomats of the Quartet, namely the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, will meet in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss a new U.S. plan to resume the Israeli- Palestinian peace talks.
Meanwhile, representatives from the P5+1 (the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) are to meet in New York at the end of this week on additional sanctions against the Iranian government.
