Albright Sets First Official Mideast Trip

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will make her first official visit to the Middle East beginning Sept. 9 in a bid to bring Israeli-Palestinian peace talks “back from the abyss,” her spokesman said. The trip, expected to last about a week, will include Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia, spokesman James P. Rubin told a State Department briefing. He gave no exact itinerary. Rubin played down expectations that the trip will achieve instant results but said the U.S. has seen enough progress on security cooperation to justify Albright’s going to the region for the first time since she took office in January. Her predecessor, Warren Christopher, visited the region about 20 times in four years.