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News > World

Kerry, Egypt's Sisi Discuss Israel-Palestine and Libya

  • Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meets U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt May 18, 2016.

    Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi meets U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt May 18, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 18 May 2016
Opinion

The meeting came as France tries to launch peace talks between the Palestinians and Israelis, an initiative Israel has already expressed opposition to.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held brief talks with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi in Cairo on Wednesday, a day after the Egyptian leader proposed new efforts to try to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

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A U.S. official said Kerry would explore in more detail Sisi's proposal, made on Tuesday during a speech, to mediate a reconciliation between rival Palestinian factions to pave the way toward a lasting peace accord with the Israelis.

In a statement after the meeting, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said they had discussed a "range of bilateral and regional issues, including recent developments on Libya and Syria."

Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognize Israel with a U.S.-sponsored peace accord in 1979, but Egyptian attitudes toward their neighbor remain chilly.

Kerry had also been scheduled to meet with Sisi to discuss a series of meetings on the Libya and Syria conflicts which took place earlier this week in Vienna.

During the meetings in Vienna on Monday and Tuesday, world powers said they were ready to consider demands from Libya's new unity government for exemptions from a U.N. arms embargo to help take control of the lawless country.

The West is counting on the U.N.-backed unity government to tackle Islamic State in Libya and to stop new flows of migrants heading across the Mediterranean, though the newly instated leaders are still not in control of the capital city Tripoli.

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