July 27, 2009

Cairo, Egypt
Thank you Mr. Secretary, thank you ladies and gentlemen for being here. I have just completed a good and informative and productive meeting with the Secretary, and as always I welcome the advice that he has provided to me. I come here, of course, from a series of meetings with leaders of the Egyptian government. I met this morning with President Mubarak, Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit and General Soliman, and we discussed also a full range of issues that we are pursuing here in the region. As I made clear on previous visits and in earlier statements, President Obama’s policy envisions a comprehensive peace in the Middle East, which includes between Israelis and Palestinians, between Israel and Syria, between Israel and Lebanon, and a full normalization of relations between Israel and its neighbors. In order to initiate promptly a meaningful negotiation, we think all parties should take steps to create a positive context so that a prompt agreement that can be reached in such negotiations. As you know from all of the public comments and private discussions, we had a series of meetings with leaders of the government of Israel regarding President Obama’s request that that government take meaningful action stop settlement activity to improve movement and access, and economic growth and development among Palestinians and a full range of other issues that we are reviewing with them. We have also asked Palestinians to take steps to continue to improve and expand their efforts at security, to act against incitements, and to refrain from taking any other steps or actions that might make negotiations more difficult. We have also asked all of the Arab nations in the region to take meaningful steps towards normalization, better steps that would indicate their support for the efforts that were undertaken. We believe that all have responsibilities- all the parties involved, the countries involved, and all the peoples involved would help us move into that direction. And so we will continue those efforts ratified by the response that we received so far. We have made good and will continue to make good progress and we thank all of those who have helped us in this effort including the Secretary-General to whom I now return the microphone. Thank you very much.