Powell won’t visit Syria

Published April 20, 2003

WASHINGTON, April 19: A US State Department official said on Saturday that Secretary of State Colin Powell has no plans to visit Syria or to launch a Middle East peace trip any time soon. Although a Powell trip to Damascus and the region had been addressed earlier by a State Department spokesman, the official said “there has been no decision on specific travels by the secretary at this point.”

Mr Powell’s intended visit was seen as the beginning of the peace process President George W. Bush had pledged to launch to resolve the Palestinian dispute before he went to war against Iraq.

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