The State Department announced Monday that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice probably would cancel plans to go to Israel and the Palestinian territories because of the uncertain state of affairs there.
''There's, obviously, a lot of politics in Israel that they are working through at this point, but we are going to continue our efforts to advance the Israeli-Palestinian track. I would say it's a change in plans, yes,'' said Sean McCormack, State Department Spokesman.
Israel Radio reported on Tuesday that a senior diplomatic official called the cancellation of the visit "unprecedented." Israeli source expressed surprise over the cancellation since meetings with the US Embassy had taken place just the day before in preparation for Rice's visit, JPost reported. Rice had planned to stop in Israel and the West Bank as part of a May 14-15 trip to Moscow.
