European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has scrapped a trip to South Africa next week in order to travel instead to the Middle East, officials said Thursday. The decision comes amid increasing tensions over the Palestinians' plans to seek United Nations membership later this month. Ashton is due to meet various ministers of Arab League countries and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Cairo next week, one EU source told the German Press Agency dpa. "She will also travel to Israel to meet with the authorities there," the source added.
