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Mubarak, Clinton Meet in Quest for Mideast Peace
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met on Tuesday with U.S. President Bill Clinton to discuss ways of helping the Palestinians and Israelis narrow gaps in their peace talks.
"We are meeting for consultations to help the two parties to reach a framework. That is very important before September, and we hope we can achieve that," said Mubarak.
Israel and the Palestinians have set September 13 as the deadline for a permanent peace deal to end their decades-old conflicts, but their stands over Jerusalem, borders, refugees, settlements and security, are far apart for now.
The U.S., the heaveweight mediator in the Mideast peace drive, has last month hosted a summit between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to try to squeeze an agreement over the final status issues for a comprehensive peace in September.
But the big gap between Israel and the Palestinians over Jerusalem, which both sides claim as their capital, aborted the summit.
Egypt, the leading role in the Arab world, has since stepped up diplomatic contacts with parties concerned and produced ideas to try to solve the most explosive and emotive issues facing the negotiations. But the details of the ideas were not disclosed.
Clinton, for his part, said "the time is short to resolve the thorny issues" in the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations and "we are working together to try to seek ways to help the parties get over the big hump."
Clinton has left Cairo after the brief meeting at Cairo International Airport's presidential lounge. He flew in from Tanzania at the end of his three-day African tour, which had also taken him to Nigeria.
The two presidents made no comments after the meeting. But Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa told reporters that the session was "good, positive and important."
Moussa said that Clinton did not put forward new proposals, but there have been ways and ideas that could bring the Palestinians and Israelis closer together in their negotiations. But he stressed "Of course, this needs great efforts."
United States Mideast envoy Dennis Ross said after the meeting that the two leaders exchanged views on the intensive contacts and consultations held by all parties to the Mideast peace process following the Camp David summit.
It is possible to reach a peace agreement, but the key is to find ways to "translate the possibility into reality," Ross said.
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