US Secretary of State John Kerry is in Cairo for a brief visit Wednesday just one day after Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi dramatically urged Palestinians and Israelis to take historic steps for peace.
Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, the second such phone call in a week. In Cairo he will meet with Sisi to speak about the frozen Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Kerry's Cairo visit, Sisi's speech and attempts by Netanyahu to bring opposition leader Issac Herzog's Labor party into the coalition has fueled speculation that a behind-the scenes US-Egyptian initiative might be in the works.
It would come precisely as France was poised to launch an internationalized peace initiative this summer. The US, which has led all past Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts, including the nine-month process that fell apart in April 2014.
It has spoken generally of supporting peace efforts, but has yet to say whether it would specifically get behind the French proposal.
The US had told the French a scheduling conflict would prevent Kerry from attending the opening meeting of the two-phase initiative, originally scheduled for May 30th in Paris.
On Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande said the meeting had been rescheduled in hopes of accommodating Kerry's schedule.
US State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters in Washington on Tuesday that his office continues "to engage in conversations with the French about a date that might work better for the Secretary to attend.
"I'm not aware that such a date has been arrived at, so I don't have anything specific to announce on the schedule. But as the secretary said when we were in Paris just last week, that we welcome all manner of discussion and all constructive ideas that can help lead us to better prospects for a two-state solution."
One reporter asked him, "is Secretary Kerry still hopeful to try to restart a direct dialogue between the Israelis and the Palestinians before he leaves office?"
Kirby responded, "I would just say that I don't think you're going to see the secretary – the secretary's interest or energy diminished at all for as long as he is secretary of state with respect to trying to get to a two-state solution."
By Tovah Lazaroff
