U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is making an official visit to Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he will discuss the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and other issues related to the Middle East, his spokesman Martin Nesirky said Monday. During his three-day visit to Lebanon later this week, Ban plans to meet with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, Prime Minister Najib Mikati and commanders of the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL. Among the issues the U.N. chief said would be on his agenda was the meeting in Amman, Jordan, between Israeli and Palestinian peace negotiators-their second round of face-to-face talks in the stalled peace talk between the two sides. Ban was also set to visit the Palestinian territories during the same visit but Palestinian U.N. envoy Riyad Mansour told reporters that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would be visiting European capitals at the time and the visit will be rescheduled.
