President Bill Clinton on Tuesday met with his top national security advisors to discuss the situation in the Middle East, his spokesman said.
"This (meeting) is intended to give him an assessment of where we are in the wake of the Arab summit, where we are in the wake of Sharm el-Sheikh and assess where we go from here," White House spokesman Jake Siewert told reporters.
Despite renewed violence in the Middle East, Siewert insisted the US-brokered agreement forged in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh -- in which the two sides pledged to take steps to end the violence -- was the best way forward.
"The agreements that were reached there, particularly on security, offer the best prospects for restoring calm in the region and that implementing those steps is still the best way to cool tensions in the area," he said.
A total of 138 people, most of them Arab, have died in the last four weeks of lethal clashes between Israel and the Palestinian authority, leaving the Middle East peace process in tatters.
"We're going to continue to do everything we can to urge them to work together on security, to take the steps that were agreed upon at Sharm el-Sheikh, because in the long-run, there is no other way to begin to restore some calm in the streets and reduce tension there," Siewert added -- WASHINGTON (AFP)
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