“We do not want to resign ourselves to this spiral of violence that affects both the Israelis and the Palestinians”, he said.
Advertisement
A USA official said Kerry would delve further into Sisi’s proposal, made Tuesday during a speech, to mediate a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions to pave the way toward a lasting peace accord with the Israelis.
John Kerry’s meeting with Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the Egyptian capital on Wednesday followed a series of discussions with global leaders in Vienna on ways to tackle the ongoing conflicts in Libya and Syria.
Kerry lauded the Egyptian president’s efforts to revive the peace talks and praised Egypt’s historic role and its contribution to achieving stability in the Middle East, added Youssef.
“Please – the Israeli parties and the Israeli leadership – come to an agreement to find a solution to this crisis”, he said.
It said that al-Sisi’s statement “didn’t surprise” Netanyahu – hinting that it was coordinated, to encourage the centre-left, pro-peace Zionist Union party of opposition leader Isaac Herzog to join the Netanyahu government, more than a year after the March 2015 Israeli elections.
Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognize Israel with a U.S.-sponsored peace accord in 1979, but Egyptian attitudes toward their neighbor remain chilly.
Head to Head – Should the USA be neutral on Israel-Palestine?
There is sympathy for that goal in Washington, and an acceptance that there is a risk that the process could become unsalvageable if it is allowed to fester, but there is also caution about pushing too fast.
Israel seeks direct negotiations “without preconditions”, as Netanyahu has said. “We ve also said that we re not ourselves trying to resume negotiations at this point”, the U.S. official said.
“The secretary is very interested in hearing some more about the details of what President Sisi has in mind”.
USA efforts to broker a two-state deal collapsed in April 2014.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, greeting Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault of France at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, May 15, 2016.
Advertisement
“It’s an enormously high priority and President Obama is committed to it and so am I”, he added.
