On Monday, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak met for 45 minutes with Secretary of State Colin Powell. They made no statement afterward. Powell followed up with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher, while Mubarak met for 75 minutes with Vice President Dick Cheney and a half-hour with Rice to prepare for Tuesday's meeting with U.S president George Bush.
The U.S. welcomed Mubarak's initiative to host an Israeli-Palestinian summit in Egypt.
"We welcome the efforts of the Egyptians as well as we welcome the efforts of the Saudis to engage the parties in positive ways. As always we'll remain in close coordination with President Mubarak and his advisers in issues related to the Israeli-Palestinian situation," a White House official said.
Powell also praised the Egyptian proposal. "It's an interesting idea," Powell said. However, he added a decision ultimately was up to Sharon and Arafat.
At a brief news conference after talking to Javier Solana, the senior diplomat for the European Union, Powell said the situation in the Middle East was "terrible," with violence between Israel and the Palestinians escalating.
Last week, Mubarak said he had sent a message to Sharon offering to be host for a summit between the prime minister and Arafat.
The spokesman at the Israeli Embassy, Mark Regev, said Monday: "We support Egyptian proposals to stabilize the situation and bring about a cease-fire, but surely it is an illusion to believe a summit in itself can solve all our problems."
Regev added: "We've had countless summits with the Palestinian leadership since the beginning of the violence a year and a half ago and unfortunately those summits produced very little. We don't need talk, we need Palestinians to live up to their own commitments and to take concrete steps against the terrorists." (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
