Clinton Called Mubarak on Mideast Peace ProcessUS President Bill Clinton called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Thursday, December 21, to discuss ways to push forward the Middle East peace process.The two leaders exchanged views on the developments of the current Middle East peace talks in Washington and efforts to halt the ongoing clashes in the Palestinian territories, Egypt's state-run Middle East News Agency reported. But the news agency did not give further details about the brief conversation. Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been playing a key mediatory role in the Middle East peace process. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have been working in Washington since Tuesday in a last-ditch bid to find common ground to revive the moribund peace process before Clinton ends its term on January 20. The Palestinian-Israeli peace talks came to a complete standstill after violence broke out on September 28 following a visit by Israeli opposition Likud party leader Ariel Sharon to Jerusalem's Al Aqsa Mosque, Islam's third holiest site. More than 320 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed and thousands more injured so far. |
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