Clinton, Mubarak hold talks in Cairo
Talks have started in Cairo on Tuesday between the US President Bill Clinton and the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on means of giving a push forward to the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The Egyptian presidency said that the meeting which was held at the honorary hall at Cairo's airport lasted more than one and a half hours, after the US President had arrived in Cairo earlier in the day coming from Tanzania.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Cairo said the US delegate to the Middle East Dennis Ross arrived in Cairo on Monday evening.
The two Presidents held a round of talks in Cairo yesterday centered on ME peace process developments and obstacles impeding them on the Syrian and the Palestinian tracks.
On the Syrian side, the meeting was attended by the prime minister Atif Obeid, the foreign minister Amre Moussa, and the advisor for President Mubarak for political affairs Dr. Osama al-Baz. The US side was attended by the advisor for the US President National security Sandy Burger and the US-ME peace process coordinator Dennis Ross.
The Egyptian foreign minister said that he felt during the talks the persistence of the US President to continue his efforts to give a push forward to the ME peace process on all tracks until the last day of his term of office.
Replying to a question by SANA's correspondence, Moussa explained that President Mubarak stressed to President Clinton the need of taking tangible steps by Israel based on its commitment to complete withdrawal from the Golan up to June 4, 1967 border lines in implementation of UN Security Council resolutions concerned, stressing the need of not giving even an inch from the occupied Golan.
The Egyptian foreign minister stressed that Israel's precise and honest implementation of UN security council resolutions 242 and 338 is the base to achieve a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.
Moussa remarked that any settlement for the Palestinian question should be just, balanced and based on international legitimacy resolutions, stressing the sensitivity of the question of Jerusalem which should be under Arab's sovereignty.
To this effect, a high ranking US official accompanying President Bill Clinton who met with the Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Tuesday said that Egypt can play a very constructive role in pushing forward the ME peace process. In a statement to press on board of the plane, the advisor for the US President for national security affairs Samuel Berger said " we should expect the meeting would result in taking important decisions. But I think the matter will result in a march of cooperation with Egypt to bring the sides together. And Egypt can play a very constructive role to this end," SANA reported.