WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States will send a senior official to run the office of Middle East peace envoy ex-British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an official said Tuesday.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Robert Danin "will be head of mission" for the Jerusalem-based office of Blair, who represents the so-called Quartet of major players in the Middle East peace process -- the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, as well as the United States.
"He will be head of mission for the office of the Quartet representative," a senior US administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Danin is currently responsible for issues relating to Israel and Palestinian territories, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt in the State Department's bureau of Near Eastern affairs.
His appointment comes ahead of a ministerial meeting of the Quartet on May 2 in London.
The agenda of the meeting among Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon "is being agreed," Russia's envoy to the Middle East Sergei Yakovlev was quoted saying Tuesday.
It also came after former US president Jimmy Carter defied the Bush administration and held controversial talks with exiled Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in the Syrian capital.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had stressed that President Mahmud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority were the sole party to the peace talks launched with Israel last November in the United States, repeating there should be no confusion about that.
"The United States is not going to deal with Hamas, and we certainly told president Carter that we didn't think meeting with Hamas was going to help the Palestinians who (are) actually devoted to peace" Rice said Tuesday.
Carter said that the Islamist Hamas movement told him it would recognize Israel's right to live in peace if a deal is reached and approved by a Palestinian vote.
He was however unable to secure a pledge from Hamas that it halt its rocket attacks on Israel.
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