US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said on Monday she would seek the Vatican's wisdom on settling Jerusalem's fate when she meets its foreign minister to confer on Middle East peace, reported Reuters.
But she did not expect to walk away from her audience with Foreign Minister Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran on Tuesday with the key to untangling the Middle East's toughest knot.
"I just want to share views with him," she said en route from Tokyo to Rome via a refueling stop in central Russia, said the agency.
"They are wise and have had a long-term interest in this," she said.
Albright said the Vatican was "interested and helpful" when she contacted its officials during a 15-day Israeli-Palestinian summit at Camp David, which ended inconclusively six days ago.
Albright said before leaving Tokyo on Monday that the United States was ready to get back to the bargaining table once the parties had caught their breath.
With views being gathered in the Arab world and Barak apparently ready to compromise, it seemed she wanted to add another piece to the incomplete jigsaw puzzle of peace, according to Reuters.
"This is a unique situation where two people want to have the same area and the same places and have a call on saying the holy places are holy to each of them in different ways," she said.
"There has to be some compromise. It's not possible for both sides to have 100 percent," she said - Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
