Clinton Talks Peace With Egyptian Officials

By Haaretz September 29, 2011

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr in Cairo for talks which included fraying Israel-Egypt relations and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Amr said that an attack on the Israeli Embassy in Cairo earlier this month, “was quite unfortunate, and I think it was condemned by all responsible parties in Egypt at the time. We made it very clear that Egypt respects its commitment under the Vienna 1961 treaty on diplomatic relations. We made it clear that we are committed to protect any mission on our soil and the personnel working in them.

“The army was very careful to see that all the personnel that wanted to leave left under the guard of the army. No one was hurt. We made sure that everyone was safe. And I think we were very clear in just reiterating our commitments to the protection of any missions and personnel.”

Concerning recent attempts by Congress to impose conditions on American aid to Egypt, Clinton that the Obama administration opposed such a move.

“We are against conditionality. And I conveyed our position to the minister. We will be working very hard with the Congress to convince the Congress that that is not the best approach to take,” she said. “We believe that the long-standing relationship between the United States and Egypt is of paramount importance to both of us. We support the democratic transition, and we don’t want to do anything that in any way draws into question our relationship or our support.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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