Washington, May 29 (Inditop): Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said that the United States would present detailed plans on the Middle East peace process to the parties involved as part of its efforts to jump-start negotiations. “We are going to be putting forward very specific proposals to the Israelis and the Palestinians. That’s what Senator Mitchell has been doing over the last couple of days,” the Jerusalem Post quoted Clinton as saying at a press conference following her lunch meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
Though the Obama administration has pledged intensified Middle East diplomacy since the beginning of its term, Clinton’s comments went the furthest to date in suggesting that the US would make its own proposals for resolving the conflict that multiple American administration plans have failed to resolve.
Arab countries, beginning with Jordan’s King Abdullah during his own White House visit in April, have urged such a US initiative.
Gheit said: “We have been discussing the need for an American major action to expedite the process. We – all of us, the Quartet, the international community, the Arab countries – [need] to show support and understanding and to push them together, allow them to negotiate in direct negotiations.” Greater participation has been a central piece of the US administration’s approach thus far, with Clinton stressing that “we’ve also been reaching out to governments of Arab nations, asking what they could be expected to do as we move forward to build confidence and to create a good atmosphere for decisions to be made.”
After meeting with Gheit, Clinton was set to host Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that evening, as part of a three-day trip to Washington that will culminate with an Oval Office visit Thursday afternoon.
