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Clinton Announces Participation in Mideast Summit
U.S. President Bill Clinton said Saturday that he will attend a Middle East peace summit scheduled for Monday in Egypt with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
"I will do everything I can to minimize the violence and to do all the preparation necessary to maximize the chances of a successful meeting," Clinton said in a brief statement at the White House.
"We should be under no illusions," he said, "The good news is the parties have agreed to meet and the situation appears to be calmer. But the path ahead is difficult."
Clinton, who has engaged himself in intensive telephone diplomacy to calm down the bloodshed in the Middle East, said the situation in the region is still quite tense.
The conflict, sparked by Israeli right wing leader Ariel Sharon's provocative visit to a Jerusalem shrine holy to both Jews and Muslims, has killed nearly 100 people, most of them Palestinians.
Mediated by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Barak and Arafat have agreed to meet on Monday in Sharm el-Sheikh, a Red Sea resort in Egypt.
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