MONDAY-TUESDAYJuly 31 - August 1, 2000 volume 11, no. 128
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NEWS for Monday-Tuesday, July 31 - August 1, 2000 WASHINGTON/VATICAN CITY, JULY 30 (ZENIT.org)
The Vatican Press
Office confirmed this morning that next Tuesday, Archbishop
Jean-Louis Tauran, Vatican Secretary for Relations with States,
will meet in Rome with Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of
State.
Fr. Ciro Benedittini, sub-director of the Vatican Press Office,
did not disclose the content of the meeting; however, sources of
the U.S. State Department announced that they will discuss the
delicate peace negotiations over the Middle East between Israelis
and Palestinians at Camp David, which failed last week over the
question of Jerusalem.
Richard Boucher, State Department spokesman, said that this is
one of those times when they want to take advantage of the
opportunity to keep interested parties informed.
Albright's trip coincides with U.S. adviser Edward Walker's tour
of 14 Arab countries, in a renewed effort to reach a compromise
over the future of Jerusalem.
According to a Reuters dispatch, a highly placed U.S. official
said Albright would negotiate in greater detail the question of
Jerusalem, which is claimed as capital by both Israelis and
Palestinians, but also considered sacred by Christians, Moslems,
and Jews. "We know that the issue is a very great obstacle, but
the United States does not believe it is insuperable," he said.
Last Sunday, John Paul II confirmed that the Holy See would like
Jerusalem to have "a special internationally guaranteed status,"
and he asked the parties involved to keep this request in mind
(Cf. ZE00072304).
Following the failure of the Camp David negotiations, because of
the problem of Jerusalem, some experts, like George Shultz, who
for years followed the Arab-Israeli conflict as Ronald Reagan's
Secretary of State, believe that the thorny problem of the Holy
City will only be solved if international guarantees are given,
which is precisely what John Paul II proposed (Cf. ZE00072809)
ZE00073007
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