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U.S., Egypt Discuss New Ideas for Ending Mideast Crisis
WASHINGTON, Aug 17 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States and Egypt on Friday hashed over new ideas for resolving the current Middle East crisis and a senior Egyptian official said the plans could be made public soon.
Osama al-Baz, a top aide to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, said Washington and Cairo would spend the next two days studying ideas put forward during his talks with Secretary of State Colin Powell to end escalating violence between Israel and the Palestinians and bring the parties back to peace negotiations.
"We cannot get into that before we give them [the United States] the courtesy of having enough time to study whatever is said and we are also going to study the ideas they gave us," al-Baz told reporters after meeting with Powell.
"Within the coming two days we will be to speak with more authority," he said.
But it was unclear what that timetable referred to, as a senior U.S. official set the 48-hour deadline for anything that had not been discussed between Powell and al-Baz.
However, the U.N. Security Council is set to hold discussions on the crisis Monday in a meeting called for by the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Conference, who desires international observers to be deployed in the region.
The senior U.S. official said Powell had pressed al-Baz on Washington's desire for Egypt to urge Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to do more to rein in attacks on Israeli targets.
"They talked about the importance of conveying the message to Chairman Arafat that the violence has got to come down," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity, hinting that Egyptian officials might have agreed to press the case with Arafat in the very near future.
Al-Baz, Mubarak's political and security adviser, declined to offer any details about either his or Powell's proposals but said he was pleased it appeared there was not a wide divergence of opinion in them.
"The gap is not that big between our thinking and their thinking, and we hope for some developments in the region, on the ground," he said. "We need a drastic change of the present situation."
"We believe that we can work out certain arrangements for the purpose of enabling us to get the parties started on the implementation of the Mitchell recommendations," al-Baz said.
Powell, who spoke briefly to reporters, did not mention any new ideas or proposals but said he and al-Baz had recommitted themselves to the importance of implementing the recommendations contained in the report of the Mitchell Commission, which seeks to restart the stalled peace talks.
"We both committed ourselves to do everything we can to get us closer to the day when the Mitchell plan can begin its implementation and execution," Powell said.
The commission, led by former U.S. senator George Mitchell, calls for a cooling-off period, followed by confidence-building measures by both sides and then a return to negotiations.
Al-Baz, on the fourth day of a Washington visit during which he has repeatedly called for greater U.S. involvement in the Middle East, said he was pleased with Powell's pledge to remain engaged and active in the region.
"We have the assurance that the U.S. is going to be active, be engaged," he said. "They are not just going to be watching us."
Al-Baz is to meet later Friday with President George W. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.
As his meetings continued, there were clashes again between Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as almost 11 months of bloodshed that has left more than 700 people dead continued.
Seven Palestinians, including five children, were injured Friday when Israeli soldiers opened fire on them in the Israeli/Egyptian border town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip.
Israel was on heightened alert Friday as authorities tightened security around the West Bank after intelligence reports warned of more possible attacks.
The heightened tensions come after two recent bombings in West Jerusalem and Haifa that killed 15 people and the two Palestinian attackers, and injured more than 100 others.
Palestinian resistance groups that have claimed responsibility for the bombings say they are reprisal attacks for the continued brutal oppression of Palestinian civilians and occupation of their land through illegal settlements by Israel.
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