NEW YORK, Feb 17: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will undertake a visit to Middle East next week to persuade Saudi Arabia and other Arab states not to make up the difference if the West implements a proposal to suspend a portion of the $1 billion aid package for the Palestinian Authority if Hamas comes to power, the New York Times said on Friday.
Officials told the Times that the US had conveyed similar concerns to the Europeans. The next step for the Bush administration, a State Department official told the Times, is to ‘convince everyone that now that we’ve set the goal, we have to apply pressure and see it through’.
