Three advisers to Ariel Sharon will be in Washington this week to outline the Israeli prime minister-elect’s agenda to the U.S. government and Jewish organizations.
Sharon also is considering his own visit to the United States next month for the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.
On the heels of his overwhelming victory last week over incumbent Prime Minister Ehud Barak, Likud Party leader Sharon named Moshe Arens, Zalman Shoval and Dore Gold to come to the United States.
Arens, a former defense minister and United Nations ambassador, is considered a possible candidate for a high-level Cabinet post, possibly his fourth turn as defense minister.
Shoval is a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, and Gold is a former ambassador to the United Nations.
The three will arrive mid-week for meetings with foreign policy officials at the White House and high-level meetings at the State Department and Pentagon, Israeli officials said.
The group also will address the media at the National Press Club on Thursday, and plan to meet with several American Jewish organizations.
Both U.S. and Israeli officials were not able to say who in the Bush administration would meet with the Likud leaders, but a meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell is under consideration, according to a State Department official.
Powell announced Friday that he would visit the Middle East later this month, his first international trip as secretary of state. Powell is expected to meet with Sharon and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, as well as several other regional leaders. He also expressed a desire to meet with Barak.
“The purpose of this trip will be to share views with friends in the region, especially in Israel and Gaza and the West Bank, to make an assessment of the situation,” Powell said.
Powell said the five-day trip is not as long as he would have liked, but felt a need to keep it short because he is the only one of the Bush administration’s State Department officials to be confirmed so far.
It is not certain whether Sharon indeed will come to the United States for next month’s AIPAC conference. Israeli officials in the United States said they are beginning to plan for the trip, but expect Sharon will not come until he has formed a government and been sworn in as prime minister.
White House officials would not comment last week on whether Sharon would meet with President Bush if indeed he does make the trip.
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