Next US leader should get to work on Mideast: Palestinian by Patrice Novotny Patrice Novotny – OCT 23
AFP TOKYO (AFP) – The next US president, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, should get to work immediately to jump-start Middle East peace talks, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said here Thursday.Erakat was visiting Tokyo for talks with Israel's Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit, in the latest meeting arranged by leading donor Japan aimed at building confidence between the two sides.Whoever will be the next president of the United States, whether Mr. McCain or Mr. Obama, they must immediately engage and continue their engagement and no time should be wasted, Erakat told reporters.Erakat conceded that the next US leader will have an overwhelming number of pressing issues, including the global financial crisis, US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a nuclear standoff with Iran.But we need them to focus and to remain engaged for their own interest in achieving peace between Palestinians and Israelis, and Israelis and Syrians, and Israelis and Lebanese, Erakat said.US President George W. Bush brought Israeli and Palestinian leaders to a summit in Annapolis, near the US capital, in November last year, which set a goal of reaching a peace accord by the time he leaves office in January.
However the Palestinian side say the target is impossible to reach because of political developments in Israel, where outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is waiting for his successor Tzipi Livni to form a government.The negotiations still need to resolve thorny issues such as the status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Palestinian refugees and the final borders of a future Palestinian state.Obama, who is ahead in opinion polls, said on a visit to the Middle East in July that the next US administration should continue to work toward the goal of the two states living side by side in peace and security.Both the Palestinian and Israeli officials voiced hope that the global economic downturn would not set back peace efforts in the Middle East.No financial crisis should affect our efforts to achieve peace, Erakat said.As Palestinians, we depend a lot on the generous contribution of the donor community -- the US, Europe, Japan and others, he said.
Japan, the world's second largest economy, has sought a larger involvement in the Middle East peace process in line with ambitions for a greater global role.Japan has spearheaded a project to build an agro-industrial complex in the West Bank to create badly needed jobs.Sheetrit also said that the financial crisis should not interfere with the peace process.The damage that is happening without peace is much higher and bigger than any financial crisis can cause, Sheetrit said.The Palestinian Authority received aid pledges totalling 7.7 billion dollars over three years at a donors conference in Paris in December last year.
Police: Palestinian man fatally stabs Israeli By STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writer OCT 23,08
AFP JERUSALEM – A Palestinian stabbed two Israelis in east Jerusalem on Thursday, killing an 86-year-old man and wounding a police officer in what authorities called a terror incident.Police shot and seriously wounded the man.Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the attack erupted when two police officers stopped to question an Arab man during a patrol in the Jewish residential neighborhood of Gilo. The man pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the officers, who then managed to shoot him.
Israel, which annexed east Jerusalem after captured it in the 1967 Middle East War, differentiates between districts like Gilo, which have been incorporated into its city limits, and the settlements it has constructed in the West Bank.Palestinians and most of the international community reject that distinction, and consider East Jerusalem neighborhoods settlements.The Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state.Rosenfeld said the wounded attacker then grabbed a passer-by and stabbed him before being overpowered. The 86-year-old civilian was dead on arrival at the emergency room, said Shoham Ruvio, spokeswoman at the city's Shaarei Tzedek hospital.Medics described the policeman's wounds as moderate.The assailant was captured by a civilian as he tried to flee up a steep staircase leading to a hilltop neighborhood.He was shot but he kept running, Yoav Mizrahi told Israel's Army Radio. After a while he got tired and I caught up with him. I ran after him and caught him, wrestled him to the ground and twisted his arm behind his back.There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the stabbing.The Israeli military later searched the West Bank home of the attacker, identified by neighbors as Mohammed Albaden, in the village of Tekoa, near Bethlehem. Witnesses said two of Albaden's friends were taken away in military jeeps.Witnesses said about 100 local teenagers hurled rocks at the soldiers, who responded with tear gas and rubber bullets. Palestinian medics said three Palestinians were lightly injured. The army said a soldier was also lightly wounded, but gave no further details.The attack was the second in a month in Jerusalem and the fourth since July.Associated Press writer Nasser Shiyoukhi in Tekoa contributed to this report.
Coalition by Sunday or snap elections: Israel's Livni by Jean-Luc Renaudie Jean-luc Renaudie – OCT 23,
FOX News JERUSALEM (AFP) – Tzipi Livni, who has struggled to form a new Israeli coalition since becoming head of the ruling party last month, said on Thursday she will call for snap elections if a deal is not done by Sunday.Decision time has come, the foreign minister said in what was seen as an ultimatum to those other parties her Kadima party accuses of playing hardball in coalition negotiations.I have just spoken with the president to tell him I will meet him on Sunday to announce my decision: either we form a new government or we go to new elections, she said after talks with members of the centrist Kadima.President Shimon Peres asked Livni on September 22 to form a new government after she was elected Kadima leader to replace Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who has resigned to battle a wave of graft allegations.
Livni has until November 3 to put together a new coalition.
I have considered it my duty to try to form a new government, particularly now, in order to favour stability, and I believe it is still what is preferable for the country, Livni, 50, said in remarks to journalists.I have had negotiations with all possible partners with a view to forming a stable government by suggesting to all partners the creation of a true partnership, she added.Last week Kadima, which has 29 seats in the 120-member parliament, reached a draft coalition agreement with the Labour party, which has 19 MPs.But major differences emerged in negotiations with the religious Shas party, which has 12 deputies and has played the role of kingmaker in the past.The ultra-Orthodox party, a crucial member of Olmert's coalition, has demanded increased family benefits that would cost 400 million dollars (312 million euros) and a promise not to negotiate with the Palestinians over the future status of Jerusalem.The Pensioners party, which has seven parliamentary seats, is demanding a hike in pensions that could cost another 900 million dollars, and talks have been more difficult than expected.Kadima MP Tzahi Hanegbi, who has been leading the negotiations, said his party had gone as far as it could.There is a limit to the haggling, he told Israeli public radio. This is true for Shas, the Pensioners party and for the others who have failed to fully appreciate Tzipi Livni's determination.
Enough of this bazaar, he added.
If it proves impossible to form a new government, snap general elections will be scheduled for 2009 and polls indicate they could bring the right-wing Likud party to power.Livni is seeking to become Israel's second woman prime minister, after Golda Meir who held office from 1969 to 1974.As foreign minister, Livni has been leading US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians since the November 2007 Annapolis conference that revived peace talks.She has vowed to press ahead with the peace process if she becomes prime minister.
Peres: Arab peace initiative is an opportunity By MAGGIE MICHAEL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Oct 23, 11:11 am ET
CAIRO, Egypt – A long-stalled Arab peace initiative could bring peace to the Middle East — still riven by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — the Israeli President Shimon Peres said Thursday, making his first endorsement of the proposal in an Arab country.Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, however, openly disagreed with Peres during a joint press conference, saying Palestinians and Israelis must reach a bilateral agreement before Arab states could consider normalizing relations with the Jewish state.Peres has recently been lobbying to jump-start a 2002 Saudi proposal offering pan-Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for withdrawal from Arab lands captured in 1967.The plan has been endorsed by 22-member Arab League, but seen little progress since then.In tandem with the bilateral negotiations with the Palestinians, we need to promote the Arab peace initiative, Peres told reporters after his meeting with Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheik.Peres, a Nobel peace prize winner whose presidency is largely ceremonial, said the Saudi plan needs to be negotiated further, but that it was correct, in spirit.A U.S. ally, Egypt is a regional heavyweight and was the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israeli in 1979, but Mubarak said discussions of wider peace agreement were off the table because the Saudi initiative is not open for negotiations.His spokesman, Suleiman Awwad, later said Mubarak dismisses the idea of all Arab countries holding talks together with Israel before the Palestinian issue is resolved.
On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Israeli leaders were seriously considering the dormant Saudi plan and that he had discussed it with Prime Minister-designate Tzipi Livni.There is definitely room to introduce a comprehensive Israeli plan to counter the Saudi plan that would be the basis for a discussion on overall regional peace, Barak told Israel's Army Radio.Israel wants to retain some of the land captured in the 1967 war and objects to language in the initiative that appears to endorse a large-scale return of Palestinian refugees to lands inside Israel. Israel says a massive influx of Palestinians would destroy the country's Jewish character.Peres and Mubarak said they also discussed the fate of Gilad Shalit, a kidnapped Israeli soldier, held in the Gaza Strip.Egypt will continue its persistent efforts to mediate and ensure success of a Shalit release deal and the Palestinian prisoners deal, Mubarak said.Egypt has been brokering a potential prisoner exchange between Israel and Gaza's Hamas leaders. Hamas is holding an Israeli soldier, captured more than two years ago in a cross-border raid from Gaza into southern Israel.Associated Press Writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.
EU's Solana targets deal with Syria next year Thu Oct 23, 10:57 am ET
DAMASCUS (AFP) – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana held talks on Thursday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the Middle East peace process and regional issues, highlighting improved ties between them.Solana and Assad discussed bolstering links between Syria and the European Union and they agreed to pursue consultations on regional and international issues, official news agency SANA said.
Syrian-European ties continue to make progress, Solana said, according to SANA. He voiced hope that both sides might next year sign an association agreement.The EU has signed such a deal with other Mediterranean countries in a bid to pave the way for the creation of a free trade agreement in 2010.Solana said the EU strongly supports the Middle east peace process and is trying to play a constructive role, SANA reported.The EU totally backs the indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel, he said. Since May, Syria has been engaged in indirect peace talks with Israel under Turkish mediation.SANA quoted Assad as saying Europe's role in the peace process is important and essential.Peace guarantees security and stability to the people of the region and this reflects positively on Europe and the world.Solana's visit to Damascus is his first since March 2007, when his trip signaled a resumption of EU contacts with Damascus frozen after the February 2005 assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri.Anti-Syrian Lebanese figures blamed Syria for the murder but Damascus has repeatedly denied any involvement.In March 2007, Solana urged Syria, the former powerbroker in Lebanon, to help ease a protracted crisis in Lebanon.His return to Damascus comes after Syria and Lebanon formally established diplomatic ties on October 15, for the first time since independence 60 years ago.
Speaking to reporters after his talks with Assad, the EU diplomat praised the importance of developments which recently occurred in Lebanon, namely the setting up of diplomatic ties between Beirut and Damascus, SANA reported.
Israel okays more Palestinian police in Hebron: report Wed Oct 22, 10:46 pm ET
JERUSALEM (AFP) – Israel has approved deploying several hundred additional Palestinian police in the West Bank town of Hebron as part of an operation to restore order, Israeli public radio reported Wednesday.The deployment, the date for which has yet to be set, was agreed at a meeting Wednesday between officials of the Israeli military and the Palestinian Authority's security service.The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that the two sides agreed to coordinate their actions to put the plan into effect, and to continue their dialogue.Requested by the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmud Abbas, the plan is an important operation against troublemakers and those that violate the law in the Hebron region, according to the Israeli statement.An Israeli military spokesman could not confirm or deny the radio report on the deployment of additional Palestinian police.During the past few months additional Palestinian police have been deployed in the West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin to restore order and reduce the activity of armed groups.US aid to help the Palestinian Authority to exert its authority was stepped up after the Islamist movement Hamas took over the Gaza Strip from the Abbas' Fatah movement supporters in June 2007.
Lebanon's Kantar vows to work for end of Israel by Jocelyne Zablit Jocelyne Zablit – Wed Oct 22, 1:14 pm ET
BEIRUT (AFP) – Three months after his release from an Israeli jail in a prisoner swap, Lebanese militant Samir Kantar says he is more than ever committed to working to wipe the Jewish state off the map.As long as there is something called Israel in this region, the resistance must continue ... and I am totally committed to the resistance, Kantar, 46, told AFP in an interview. I am ready to take part in any resistance mission.Described as a monster in Israel where he was convicted for killing Danny Haran, his four-year-old daughter Einat and an Israeli policeman in a notorious attack nearly three decades ago, Kantar is considered a hero by many in Lebanon, where he was given a red carpet welcome on his release in July.He said he now spends his days mostly in meetings linked to the resistance and was convinced that Israel was preparing a major attack against Lebanon.They don't realize what we have in store for them, he said, sitting in a seaside apartment on the outskirts of Beirut filled with medals, honorary plaques and pictures of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, a man he says he idolizes.Israel is going to suffer great losses and they will lose for sure, he added. The idea that Israel is an invincible, secure state has become a myth.He said that even if Israel withdrew from the contested Shebaa Farms territory in south Lebanon captured in 1967, the resistance would continue with its struggle to eliminate the Jewish state.The resistance will end only when the Zionist entity disappears, he vowed.Recalling the cross-border raid that landed him in an Israeli jail in 1979, when he was just 16 years old and part of the Palestine Liberation Front, Kantar says he has no regrets and denies killing Haran and his daughter.I remember every detail of that night, he said calmly, pulling on a cigarette. The father kept insisting on taking his daughter with him and that delayed the operation for about 10 minutes.He refused to leave her behind and clutched on to her. He was like a madman, he added. We were not interested in the girl.He said both were killed by Israeli fire during a fierce battle that took place as Kantar and his fellow militants tried to flee with the two Israeli hostages.
But according to forensic evidence and witness testimony during his trial, Kantar and his co-militants killed Haran and then battered Einat's skull with rifle butts.
I just wish they would give as much importance to the children killed during the 2006 (Hezbollah) war with Israel and the Palestinian children dying every day, Kantar said.Israeli security officials have vowed to hunt him down for his crime but Kantar said he was not especially concerned for his safety and realized he could never lead a normal life though he hoped to one day marry and have children.He also brushed aside persistent rumours that he may stand in next year's parliamentary elections in Lebanon.I don't live with the obsession that I may get killed, he said, adding that he nonetheless had a security detail and took precautions.As to his most searing memory of the time he spent in Israeli jails, Kantar said it concerned a prison guard who spoke to him in Arabic. He told me listen Samir, you are a young man now but by the time you get out you will have become a burden on society, Kantar said. I guess my message to the Israelis today is that they didn't manage to break me.
US gives 150-million-dollar budget aid to Palestinians Wed Oct 22, 10:15 am ET
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) – The United States on Wednesday gave 150 million dollars in budget support to the Palestinian Authority, after delivering a similar sum in March.The US has again delivered a significant sum of money directly to the Palestinian budget, our most critical area of need, Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad said at a signing ceremony in the West Bank political capital Ramallah.I thank President (George W.) Bush and the many members of Congress for making this assistance possible and for their ongoing efforts to build a secure, independent Palestinian state that will live in peace and security with Israel and all its neighbours, he said.Jake Walles, the US consul in Jerusalem, said the US government is pleased to support the prime minister and his government's efforts to ensure a future of economic and political stability for the Palestinian people.The World Bank says the Palestinian economy, driven by investment and private sector productivity before 2000, has turned into one sustained by government spending and donor aid.From January to August this year, the Palestinian Authority received 1.2 billion dollars in budget support, in addition to about 300 million dollars in development aid, the multilateral agency said in a September report.
Palestinians welcome Israeli interest in Saudi plan Wed Oct 22, 7:04 am ET
AFP PARIS (Reuters) – Palestinians hope Israeli calls for the revival of a Saudi peace initiative could lead to progress on a diplomatic track that has been dormant for years, their chief negotiator with Israel said Wednesday.Israeli President Shimon Peres last month called on Saudi King Abdullah to further a land-for-peace proposal endorsed six years ago by the Arab League, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said last week Israelis were reconsidering the plan.For the past week Israel has started speaking in a new and positive way about this initiative. We note this change of language and we place a lot of hope in it, Palestinian chief negotiator with Israel Ahmed Qurie told reporters in Paris.The Saudi plan calls for full Arab recognition of Israel if it gives up all of the territories occupied in the 1967 Six Day War and accepts a just solution for Palestinian refugees. Egypt and Jordan are the only Arab countries to have signed full peace accords with Israel.Peres has said that it's a good and positive initiative and it is a base for a global negotiation between Israel and Arab countries. Barak has spoken in similar terms. I think Barak and Tzipi Livni are in agreement about that, Qurie said.Livni, Israel's foreign minister and prime minister-designate, has been Qurie's counterpart in the most recent round of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.Qurie said Livni, who is busy trying to put together a new coalition government for Israel, had said nothing to him about the Saudi initiative and he did not elaborate on why he thought she shared Barak's views on the issue.Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said Tuesday he hoped Livni would follow Peres' lead when her government is up and running.Qurie said Barak's comments were positive although they should be put to the test of real diplomatic negotiations.This Arab initiative is the bravest and the best for finding a complete solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, he said, speaking through an interpreter.Livni has said she would pursue U.S.-backed bilateral peace talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas that were launched a year ago by outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.Disputes over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and divisions among the Palestinians have thwarted Washington's hopes of clinching a bilateral peace deal by the end of this year. Echoing comments by other senior Palestinians, Qurie said there was objectively no chance of meeting that goal.
(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
Israel shuts Gaza crossings after rocket attack Wed Oct 22, 2:00 am ET
AFP JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel temporarily closed its border crossings with the Gaza Strip Wednesday after militants from the Hamas-controlled territory fired a rocket into southern Israel.After a rocket was fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip yesterday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Gaza crossings to be closed starting Wednesday morning, a defense ministry official said.The official did not say how long the crossings would remain shut.Gaza militants fired the rocket Tuesday, the first in more than six weeks, causing no damage or injuries, Israeli police said.Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire in June. It called for a cessation of cross-border violence and a gradual easing of Israel's blockade on the Gaza Strip, which was tightened after the Islamist group seized control of the territory in 2007.The truce has largely held, although Gaza militants occasionally fire rockets into Israel, which responds by temporarily closing its borders with the coastal territory.(Writing by Ari Rabinovitch; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Colombia says smashes drug ring with Hezbollah ties Tue Oct 21, 10:22 pm ET
AFP BOGOTA (Reuters) – Colombian authorities said on Tuesday they broke up a drug and money-laundering ring in an international operation that included the capture of three people suspected of shipping funds to Hezbollah guerrillas.More than 100 suspects were arrested in Colombia and overseas on charges they trafficked drugs and laundered cash for Colombia's Norte del Valle cartel and for outlawed paramilitaries in a network that stretched from South America to Asia, the attorney's general office said.The criminal organization used routes through Venezuela, Panama, Guatemala, Middle East and Europe, bringing in cash from the sale of these substances, the statement said.Among those arrested in Colombia were three people suspected of coordinating drug smuggling to send some of their profits to groups such as Hezbollah, the office said.Those suspects -- Chekry Mahmoud Harb, Ali Mohamad Abdul Rahim and Zacaria Hussein Harb -- used front companies to send drug cash overseas, it said without providing further details.Colombia, a key U.S. ally, remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer, although over the last seven years Washington has sent more than $5 billion in aid that has helped weaken the country's FARC rebels and reduce violence from its conflict.Washington has often complained that Iran-backed Hezbollah and other Islamic groups that it considers terrorist organizations are active in Arab communities in South American countries such as Brazil and Venezuela.(Reporting by Patrick Markey in Bogota; Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Underground cattle trade thrives in Gaza tunnels By Nidal al-Mughrabi Nidal Al-mughrabi – Tue Oct 21, 7:36 am ET
RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – When the calves were hauled out of the tunnel from Egypt on Tuesday, they could hardly stand up.After a terrifying, 1000 meter (yard) underground trip into the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip, what the young cattle wanted most was a long drink of cool water.Underground livestock smuggling has increased dramatically ahead of Eid Al-Adha, the day of sacrifice due December 10, when Muslims the world over slaughter animals and feed the poor to seek God's forgiveness.
Even if we brought in animals every day we would not meet the demand for the Eid, said a tunnel operator who identified himself as Abu Luqaib.Hundreds of Gaza merchants throng around the border area of Rafah every day to pick up merchandise coming to Gaza from Egypt via subterranean passages that have created a flourishing trade zone.It's an industrial zone here, said the 23-year-old tunnel operator as his crew pulled a bawling calf up the deep shaft by a simple rope around its middle. No livestock harness was used.Gaza has suffered galloping unemployment since Israel tightened its blockade on the territory in 2007 to try to weaken its Palestinian rulers, Hamas, an Islamist group sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state.
Goods are scarce in Gaza markets because of Israeli restrictions on what Gaza may and may not import. The tunnel network handles all sorts of readily portable merchandise including fuel, automobile parts, computers and clothes.
TRANQUIL RIDE
The number of tunnels has mushroomed in the past year to around 800, according to Abu Luqaib. They employ between 20,000 to 25,000 workers in a gray economy struggling for survival.A standard 500 meter tunnel costs $60,000 to $90,000 to build, he says. A 1,000 tunnel built with extra safety features can cost up to $150,000.The tunnels can be dangerous. Palestinian officials say at least 45 Gazans have died in cave-ins this year, some of which were blamed by Hamas on the security forces in Egypt, who are under pressure from Israel and the United States to clamp down.But such risks are clearly outweighed by potential profits.The calves that came through on Tuesday cost $350 each plus $250 for the transport, a total of $600 per head.Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007 from the secular Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, endorses the tunnels as a way of defying the blockade, and, according to some Gaza residents, imposes taxes on the tunnel trade.
It also keeps a close eye on what comes through.
No one can smuggle arms or drugs, on the orders of Hamas, said Abu Luqaib. Israel, however, says Hamas runs its own tunnel network to bring arms, explosives and ammunition.The tunnels also ferry people who cannot otherwise leave or enter Gaza unless they have Israeli or Egyptian permission. One Gaza woman, Umm Khaled, had been stuck in Egypt for several weeks while her husband fretted over telling her the unwelcome news that her only way home was via a dark tunnel. So friends slipped a sleeping draught into her glass of juice, wrapped her in a blanket and laid her in an underground trolley to be whisked through to the beleaguered Gaza Strip. She got the fastest, most tranquil, and safest trip home in the end, said tunnel operator Ahmed, who gave no second name. (Writing by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Douglas Hamilton; editing by Sami Aboudi)
Bachelet calls for Mideast 'balance' on meeting Jordan king Mon Oct 20, 11:40 pm ET
SANTIAGO, (AFP) – Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said she and visiting King Abdullah II of Jordan agreed the Middle East should strive for balance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.Bachelet said Chile and Jordan share a vision of "balance between the right the state of Israel has to exist within safe borders and the right of the Palestinians to a free and sovereign state.Multilateralism must guide the foreign policy of every country, more so at the present time that makes us share both in the advantages and problems of globalization, Bachelet told a joint press conference Monday after meeting with the monarch.Abdullah said he looked forward to increasing trade between Chile and Jordan during his talks here, and invited Bachelet to visit his country next year.I hope we get the chance of building new bridges in the relations between our two nations, he said.Meanwhile, the king's Palestinian-born wife Queen Rania on Monday visited a Santiago nursery and the Interactive Mirador Museum.The royal couple was to be feted at a gala dinner at Chile's Palacio de la Moneda, Bachelet's presidential headquarters.On Tuesday, the king is expected to give a speech about the Islamic world, and also take part in a binational business roundtable gathering.Jordanian officials said Abdullah's itinerary in his first-ever tour of Latin America will also take him to Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Honduras and Cuba.
