German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer is scheduled to arrive in the Middle East on Monday on a three-day tour that will take him to Egypt, the Palestinian territories and Israel. The scheduled has been shortened, as the visit was originally planned to include Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, said agencies.
Fischer is to meet with his Egyptian counterpart, Ahmed Maher, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and top Israeli officials including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Parliament Speaker Avraham Burg.
Fischer played a crucial role in a ceasefire declaration by Arafat when the minister was on a visit to the Palestinian Occupied Territories in the wake of a suicide bombing at a disco in Tel Aviv in June that left 22 dead.
Germany has been involved in mediation between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah resistance movement over three soldiers taken prisoner last October in the occupied Shabaa Farms – Albawaba.com
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