US, Egypt Search for Renewal of Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process

posted on: May 19, 2016

Ken Bredemeier
Voice of America

The United States and Egypt sought ways Wednesday to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process after Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sisi said this week he would “make every effort” toward a solution.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with the Egyptian leader in Cairo, with a State Department spokesman later saying the top American diplomat “expressed his appreciation” for Sissi’s “strong support for advancing Arab-Israeli peace.”

But spokesman Mark Toner did not elaborate on any specific new effort to renew the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process that broke down in 2014 with no agreement.

The Kerry-Sissi meeting came a day after the Egyptian leader said an Israeli-Palestinian accord would make Cairo’s relations with Tel Aviv “warmer.”

Sissi said there was a “real opportunity” for peace in the region. He said an Israeli-Palestinian pact would “give safety and stability to both sides. If this is achieved, we will enter a new phase that perhaps no one can imagine now.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Sissi’s “willingness to invest every effort to advance a future of peace and security between us and the Palestinians.”

Egypt and Israel reached a peace agreement in 1979, the first accord between an Arab country and the Jewish state.

Source: www.voanews.com