ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., 11 JUNE

The Secretary-General travelled to Washington, D.C. in the morning of Wednesday, 11 June, where he met with United States Secretary of State Colin Powell for a private working lunch, at which they discussed the Middle East and Iraq, operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia and Myanmar.

At a press encounter following their meeting, on the same day when many had died in a bomb blast on a Jerusalem bus, and a retaliatory strike had been made in Gaza, the Secretary-General expressed the hope that those events would “not deter the leaders from moving ahead”.  “Obviously, we should deal very firmly with all these terrorist attacks”, he continued “but the only path to peace is the Road Map, the promise of Aqaba”.

The Secretary-General’s first meeting of the day was with National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, with whom he discussed the situation in the Middle East, Iraq, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Western Sahara, and she raised the issue of Myanmar.

Mr. Annan returned to New York that afternoon.