Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman left Sunday for Europe and North America, where he will gauge firsthand the international community's reaction to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's BESA Center address at Bar-Ilan University.


Lieberman is expected to take the EU to task for its outreach to Hizbullah, which culminated Saturday with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana's meeting with Hizbullah parliamentarian Hussein Hajj Hassan in Beirut.

Another issue to be raised in Luxembourg will be the stalled upgrade in ties that the EU agreed upon with Israel in December, but which has been put on hold since Operation Cast Lead.

In addition to meeting together with the EU foreign ministers as a group, Lieberman will hold separate talks with the foreign ministers of Poland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Sweden, which will assume the rotating presidency of the EU on July 1.

Lieberman is also expected to meet in Brussels with NATO chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and EU Commissioner for External Relations Benita Ferraro-Waldner.

From Brussels, Lieberman will fly to Washington for his first visit there as foreign minister. He will meet Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, National Security Advisor James Jones, and congressional leaders from both parties.

FM Lieberman will also travel to New York for a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and then to Ottawa for a meeting with Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Canon. He is not expected to return to Israel until a week from Tuesday.

(Jpost)