Clinton, Mubarak Discuss Mideast Peace
C A I R O, Aug. 29 -- President Clinton and Egyptian PresidentMubarak, emerging as the two main mediators in Mideast peacemaking,committed themselves to finding a solution but indicated nobreakthrough was near after meeting today.
The two met for an hour and a half at a lavish reception room atthe Cairo airport after Clinton touched down in Egypt on the wayhome from an African tour that included a disappointing failure toreach a peace accord for Burundi.
They made no remarks after their meeting, but Amr Moussa,Mubarak’s foreign minister, said the session was “good, positiveand important.”
Moussa said Clinton brought no new plan, “but there are waysand proposals and ideas” that could allow Israelis andPalestinians to move closer together in the next few days.
“But this will require a great effort,” Moussa said.
Summit Review
Dennis Ross, U.S. envoy to the Middle East, said the two leadersreviewed the flurry of peacemaking meetings that followed a failedsummit last month between Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat andIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the U.S. presidential retreatCamp David.
The Cairo meeting “was also a chance to consult about how bestto be helpful to the parties and how the two of us (Egypt and theUnited States) can be working together to be most helpful to themin order to try to move toward an agreement,” Ross said.
“We know ... that it is possible to reach an agreement, but thereal question is how to translate that possibility into reality,”Ross added. “There is a possibility and it shouldn’t be lost ...there is a risk that it could be lost.”
Moussa said it was impossible to say whether another Camp Davidstyle summit could soon be convened.
Africa Tour
Clinton flew in from Arusha, Tanzania, where Nelson Mandelaangrily lectured warring factions in one of Africa’s bloodiest warsfor failing to reach a peace agreement.
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