U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell next week will follow U.S. President Barack Obama to the Middle East and may visit Syria, the State Department said Tuesday night. "He is planning to travel to the region next week. At this point I can't be more specific on travel itinerary," said U.S. State Department spokesman Robert Wood.
He did not confirm or deny a statement two weeks ago by Syrian Ambassador Imad Mustapha that "Mitchell and his team sent their passports to us today for obtaining visas to visit Syria." According to Wood, Mitchell has not yet decided whether to travel to Damascus, where two senior State Department officials traveled last month for the second time this year.
The visits to Syria represent a radical change in the thinking of the Obama administration, whose advisors are mostly veterans of the Oslo talks that were conducted during the government of President Bill Clinton. Syria officially is boycotted by the United States, which has branded it as a country that supports terror.
A trip to Syria would advance President Obama’s multi-track approach which places the Iranian nuclear threat, the Palestinian Authority-Israeli dispute and Syria’s relations with Israel and the U.S. in one package.
The announcement of Mitchell’s junket, his second to the Middle East since being appointed by President Obama, came hours before President Obama was to aboard Air Force One and fly to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. He has chosen Cairo as the venue for what has been trumpeted as a major speech to the Muslim world on behalf of peace and against violence and extremism.