U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit Israel and the West Bank next week to encourage Israeli and Palestinian leaders to make progress ahead of a planned U.S.-sponsored peace conference this year, the State Department said on Wednesday. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice would be in the region from September 18-20, first visiting Jerusalem for talks with Israeli leaders. She will then travel to Ramallah in the West Bank for meetings with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of a Middle East conference tentatively scheduled for some time in November. “She wants to build upon some of the progress that the two parties themselves have made in their discussions,” McCormack said. “If we are going to succeed in bringing about a two-state solution it is going to be fundamental that the two states themselves are ready to roll up their sleeves,” he added.
