The United States has urged Israeli and Palestinian leaders to put an end to the wave of violence in the region that is threatening to derail the Middle East peace process, the White House said Monday.
President Bill Clinton "spoke to both leaders over the weekend to urge them to do everything they could to stop the violence," White House spokesman Jake Siewert said. The violence has claimed 49 lives in Israel and Palestinian territories in less than a week.
"We will remain in contact with both sides throughout the week," he said, following Clinton's telephone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright echoed the White House statements from Paris, where she was in meetings Monday with the French government.
She said the two sides must regain control of a situation that can only be resolved at the negotiating table and not in the streets.
The recent violence is especially tragic since the two sides were "very close" to a settlement, the top US diplomat said at a news conference following a meeting with her French counterpart, Hubert Vedrine.
In Washington, Siewert stressed that a return to calm was a number one priority for the United States.
"Right now our focus is entirely on ending the violence and urging both sides to do what they can to stop the violence so we can get back to the negotiating table where these differences should be resolved," he said.
He refused to assign blame for the wave of violence -- "we are not engaged in pointing fingers" -- but repeated that the visit Thursday by Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to a mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem had been "counterproductive.”
Both Barak and Arafat had accepted Clinton's proposal to send a high level US official to the region once calm is restored, to work with Israeli and Palestinian security forces in examining the causes of the outbreak, Siewert said.
No date had been attached to the mission, according to Siewert, who added that it would not be undertaken by CIA Director George Tenet, but by a US representative "at a lower level." - WASHINGTON (AFP)
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