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Egypt Calls for Unbiased US Role in Mideast Peace Process
Egypt on Monday called on the United States to play an unbiased role in the Middle East peace process, in response to US President Bill Clinton's expressed desire to move American embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said the question of moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem was an extremely thorny issue. He urged all parties to avoid taking unilateral steps.
Jerusalem is still subject to negotiations between the Palestinians and Israel, which should not be disturbed, Moussa told reporters after meeting with U.S. envoy Edward Walker in Egypt's town of Borg el-Arab, west of the Mediterranean port city of Alexandria.
The continuation of the peace process and an unbiased US role require that no steps be taken which would negatively affect the process, including what are known as unilateral actions, Moussa said.
Walker, US assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs, declined to comment on Clinton's declared intention.
He later held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The US official arrived in Egypt earlier in the day to brief Egyptian officials on the 15-day talks between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israel Prime Minister Ehud Barak in the US Camp David presidential retreat.
The 15-day talks broke down last Tuesday without producing a peace agreement between the two sides.
In an interview broadcast on Israeli television Friday, Clinton said he was considering moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by the end of the year.
Moving the embassy to Jerusalem would imply a US recognition of Israel's claim to the city as its "eternal and indivisible capital," a position so far never accepted by the international community.
Moussa called for sustaining efforts to secure the Palestinian people's aspirations and legitimate rights to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians want Arab East Jerusalem, seized by Israel in 1967, as the capital of their future independent state.
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