VATICAN (CWNews.com) - US Secretary of State Madeline Albright said on Monday she would travel to Rome on Tuesday to consult with the Vatican on the Middle East peace process, especially the sticky issue of Jerusalem's status.
Albright will meet with the Vatican Foreign Minister, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran. "I just want to share views with him," she said en route from Tokyo to Rome. "They are wise and have had a long-term interest in this." She added that she had made contacts with the Vatican during the 15-day Israeli-Palestinian summit at Camp David which fell apart earlier this month.
A senior U.S. official said Palestinian President Yasser Arafat had told the Vatican during a visit that "he had some responsibility for the Moslem and Christian holy sites." The official added: "The question is, what that really is. It's possible that the Vatican has some further thoughts on this and that's what the Secretary wants to explore."
Israel controls all of Jerusalem, after capturing East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. It claims the city as its "eternal and united capital," Palestinians want control of East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leaders want assurances that access to all religious sites would be maintained. The Vatican has repeatedly proposed a special status for Jerusalem as an international city, although both sides have rejected this.
Catholic World News Service - Daily News Briefs