Obama to Meet With Abbas During Mideast Swing

Barack Obama will visit Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank next week, a top Palestinian official said today. The Ramallah meeting with the president of the Palestinian Authority will happen on July 23, CNN reports. Details on the international trip have been guarded, but the Times of London says Obama will touch down in London this Friday, continue to Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan and Iraq—and finish in France and Germany on the 24th and 25th.

Also, Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel, a national-security expert, confirmed he would be aboard for the trip’s Mideast swing yesterday, certainly a stinging slight to longtime friend John McCain. Another Senate colleague and military veteran, Dem Jack Reed, will also be in attendance. (More Barack Obama stories.)