Hillary urges Israel to make difficult choices for peace
Tuesday, 23 March 2010
WASHINGTON, Mar 22 (AFP): United States (US) Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Israel Monday to make 'difficult but necessary choices' for Middle East peace but promised her 'rock solid' support for its security.
In an address to be delivered later in the day to the annual policy conference in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Clinton pledged that the United States would not "compromise its commitment" to prevent Israel's archfoe Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
But, according to advance excerpts of her speech, she also cautioned that a new round of UN sanctions would take time.
Clinton's speech had been keenly awaited as it comes amid one of the most difficult periods in years in US-Israeli relations as President Barack Obama's administration struggles to revive Middle East peace talks in the face of Israel's continued expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
During the day, Clinton was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington to deliver his own address to the key pro-Israel lobby ahead of White House talks on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Aljazeera.net: Israeli fighter jets have struck southern part of the Gaza Strip in an overnight raid, targeting what the Israeli military said was an arms smuggling tunnel.
The aircraft attacked a tunnel on the Rafah sector on the border with Egypt, but no one was injured, witnesses said Monday.
A military spokesman confirmed the raid, saying it had come in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian side.
One rocket was fired into southern Israel late Sunday from the Gaza Strip, though it landed without causing any injuries or damage, the Israeli army said earlier.
In an address to be delivered later in the day to the annual policy conference in Washington of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Clinton pledged that the United States would not "compromise its commitment" to prevent Israel's archfoe Iran getting a nuclear bomb.
But, according to advance excerpts of her speech, she also cautioned that a new round of UN sanctions would take time.
Clinton's speech had been keenly awaited as it comes amid one of the most difficult periods in years in US-Israeli relations as President Barack Obama's administration struggles to revive Middle East peace talks in the face of Israel's continued expansion of settlements on occupied Palestinian land.
During the day, Clinton was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Washington to deliver his own address to the key pro-Israel lobby ahead of White House talks on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Aljazeera.net: Israeli fighter jets have struck southern part of the Gaza Strip in an overnight raid, targeting what the Israeli military said was an arms smuggling tunnel.
The aircraft attacked a tunnel on the Rafah sector on the border with Egypt, but no one was injured, witnesses said Monday.
A military spokesman confirmed the raid, saying it had come in response to rocket fire from the Palestinian side.
One rocket was fired into southern Israel late Sunday from the Gaza Strip, though it landed without causing any injuries or damage, the Israeli army said earlier.