Meeting Between Albright and Archbishop Tauran
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.
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