Clinton Calls Mubarak on Mideast Peace TalksUS President Bill Clinton called Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak late Wednesday to discuss the latest development in the Middle East peace talks.The two leaders exchanged views on the contacts Mubarak has made with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, as well as Clinton's peace plan on a final settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Egypt's official MENA news agency reported. The outgoing US president said on Wednesday that the Palestinians and Israelis weighing his proposals for a Middle East peace deal "are closer than they have ever been before" to an accord. Egypt, the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has been playing a key mediating role in the Middle East peace process. Mubarak will host a Palestinian-Israeli summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el Sheikh on Thursday to review and discuss ways to push forward the stalled peace process. Palestinian and Israeli negotiators wound up five-day talks in the United States on Saturday in a bid to find a common ground to resume the stalled peace process before Clinton leaves office on January 20. Clinton proposed at the end of the talks his compromise initiatives, aimed at seeking solutions to the thorniest issues including East Jerusalem, the return of the Palestinian refugees, Jewish settlements and the borders of a future Palestinian state. |
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