Rice announces Middle East visit after swearing-in
Condoleezza Rice, formally sworn in as US secretary of state on Wednesday, went through it again today for ceremony’s sake in the State Department’s majestic Benjamin Franklin dining room.
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg administered the oath to Rice, the 66th secretary of state, with President George W. Bush looking on.
Bush catapulted Rice to the role of top US diplomat after she served for four years as his national security adviser, and her private, official swearing-in occurred Wednesday night at the White House.
Rice hit the ground running yesterday with a pep talk to cheering State Department employees crowded into a lobby, meetings on Iraq and the tsunami disaster and telephone conversations with seven foreign leaders as she planned a trip to Europe and the Middle East next week.
“It’s great to be here,” she said upon entering the building where she was an intern in 1977 in the bureau of education and cultural affairs. “There is a lesson in that,” Rice joked. “Be good to your interns.”
Her trip next week to Europe, foreshadowing one later in February by the president, was widely expected, but not her foray to the Middle East.
It promptly carries out a promise she made to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during her confirmation hearings that she would become personally involved in efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
It will be a brief visit, tucked in-between European stops and confined to meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. There are no planned diversions to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Iraq.
The aim is to measure the likelihood of generating momentum to drive Israel and the Palestinians to the peace table.
