U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met in Washington on Wednesday with an Egyptian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit for talks on bilateral relations and the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. “We just had a very good working lunch with the foreign minister, [intelligence chief] General [Omar] Suleiman, and the delegation from Egypt. I had the opportunity to thank them for their commitment to working with us and strengthening and deepening our bilateral relationship and for the leadership that Egypt is showing on both regional and global matters,” Clinton said at the State Department. “I asked them to extend our thanks to President [Hosni] Mubarak and others in the Egyptian government who are working to resolve conflicts and bridge divides,” Clinton told reporters. “I assured them that President [Barack] Obama and I are fully committed to a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, to a two-state solution; that we regard Egypt as an essential partner in helping us to realize that vision.” “We appreciate the leadership that Egypt has shown in recent months, including convening the conference in Sharm El-Sheikh that I attended, as well as undertaking sensitive mediation among various parties in the region,” the top U.S. diplomat said. Gheit noted that his delegation had held “fruitful” talks over the past two days with American officials “on the highest level.” “We feel encouraged on the insistence and the determination of this administration to push forward for a peace effort that ultimately, we would hope, will allow the Palestinians to have their state,” Gheit told reporters. “The message we were carrying to you is that the Middle East is looking forward for a determined action, on your part, to bring the idea of the two-state [solution] to fruition; that the core of the problem in this part of the world is the Palestinian problem,” Gheit told Clinton. “The second aspect that we touched over the last two days, is we are full of expectations for the president's visit to Cairo on the 4th of June,” Gheit said. “We are determined also to keep building up Egyptian-American relations, as well as our cooperation with you … relating to bilateral [issues] as well as problems tormenting this region.”
