Hillary Clinton consults U.S. allies in Egypt

By The Associated Press Comments 0
Published: November 4, 2009

CAIRO — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a hastily arranged stop in the Egyptian capital Tuesday amid indications of a shifting U.S. strategy for renewed peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

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Instead of returning to Washington after attending a conference in Morocco, Clinton flew to Cairo and held late-night talks with Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Omar Suleiman, the Egyptian intelligence chief. She was due to meet today with President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt and other Arab nations reacted with strong concern to remarks Clinton made in Jerusalem on Saturday when she said that the Israeli government’s offer to restrain — but not stop — settlement activity in Palestinian areas was unprecedented.

And in a new twist Tuesday, Clinton made what appeared to be an inadvertent slip of the tongue in a television interview with the al-Jazeera network, referring to the goal of "an Israeli capital in east Jerusalem.”

It has not been U.S. policy to favor including east Jerusalem in an Israeli capital; the Palestinians claim it as their capital, and the issue is one of the most important and delicate points that would have to be settled in any final peace deal.

Two Clinton aides monitoring the interview alerted her to the mistake and that portion of the interview was retaped so she could correct herself.