Arabs Urged to Pressure US to Help Reach Mideast PeaceA senior Palestinian official on Sunday urged Arab countries to impose pressure on the United States to "fulfil its obligations" to help reach peace in the Middle East.In a phone interview with Radio Cairo from the Palestinian city of Gaza, Nabil Shaath, minister of international cooperation, warned that without greater U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the Palestinian-Israeli violence would drag on to bring about " grave" implications in the region. Shaath said "the current visit to the U.S. by a high-level Egyptian delegation is aimed at briefing the U.S. administration on the Arab position regarding Israeli continued aggressions against the Palestinians." "The Palestinians need Arab support to counter Israeli aggression," Shaath said, while speaking highly of Egypt's role in resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. A high-level Egyptian delegation, led by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's political advisor Osama al-Baz, left Cairo for Washington last Monday and is still in Washington for talks on how to deal with the tense situation in the occupied Palestinian territories. Egypt has been pushing the U.S. administration for months to intervene more actively to help end the Palestinian-Israeli violence and resume peace negotiations. Nearly 700 people, most of them Palestinians, have been killed since the eruption of the deadly clashes between the Palestinians and Israelis last September. |
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