In a marked policy reversal, the Bush administration is sending CIA head George Tenet to meet with Israeli and Palestinian security officials and possibly with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat as well, officials in Washington said yesterday.
Tenet is due to arrive sometime today.
The State Department declined to provide details on his schedule, but sources said he might stop in Amman, before coming to Israel. Boucher said Tenet would coordinate with Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs William Burns, currently monitoring the situation from Jordan, and that he expects Burns will attend some of the meetings. Less than three months ago, the Bush administration abandoned the CIA's high-profile role as a broker between Israeli and Palestinian security services and decided to keep Tenet out of the fray. Tenet, who visited the region frequently during the previous administration, has not traveled to Israel since October, when then president Bill Clinton dispatched him shortly after the outbreak of the violence. Officials also wanted to make certain Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs, particularly Gaza Preventive Security Service chief Mohammed Dahlan and his West Bank counterpart, Jibril Rajoub, who balked at recent lower-level security meetings, would take part in meetings if Tenet came.