UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is heading to Kuwait, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories in hopes of restarting the Mideast peace process, the chief UN spokesman announced on Thursday.
"The Secretary-General will leave New York on Friday... for a trip that will take him to Kuwait, Israel and the state of Palestine," said the spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.
Guterres plans to meet with Kuwaiti leaders on Sunday, "to discuss the situation in the region" and express gratitude to Kuwait for its "tremendous generosity for humanitarian causes," and then fly to Israel, Dujarric said.
There, "he will meet with the Israeli and Palestinian leadership to discuss the prospects of reviving the peace process," said the spokesman, adding that Guterres "will also engage with civil society and university leaders and visit an UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) facility."
The Secretary-General is to return to UN Headquarters in New York late on Wednesday, Aug. 30, Dujarric said.
"On the visit to Israel and Palestine, I think the issue is obviously an important issue on the UN's agenda," he said. "It's important for the Secretary-General to go to visit both places early in his tenure."
Guterres took office on Jan. 1.
The Secretary-General "will be reiterating the UN's commitment to providing Israelis and Palestinians with all possible support to reach a comprehensive two-state solution as the only option for realizing the national aspirations of both peoples," Dujarric said.
Asked if Guterres was going to visit the Gaza Strip, the spokesman said, "at this point all I can share with you is what I have shared with you."
However, when Dujarric was asked there was no connection between the Guterres visit to the region and that of Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump's senior adviser, and son-in-law, who is leading a delegation of administration officials to the Middle East, calling it merely a "coincidence."
Dujarric also was pressed on the Kuwait visit and whether Guterres would discuss the regional crisis of Qatar.
"Obviously Kuwait plays a very important role in the region, notably, currently, on its mediation efforts towards resolving the (Qatar) crisis in the Gulf, also having an important role in Iraq and other areas in the region and, as I said, to thank the Kuwaitis for their support for UN's humanitarian work," he said.
Also, Guterres was going to Kuwait because he had visited other Gulf states but for "various logistic reasons Kuwait is not a place he already visited," Dujarric said.
In June, Middle East countries, including Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, imposed economic blockade on Qatar after cutting off diplomatic ties with it. They have charged Qatar with helping the "terrorist organizations," which Qatar has denied.
