".... In their second call, the Israeli prime minister gave a detailed explanation of what happened.... . The two leaders' third call was to discuss and coordinate strategy on how to deal with Monday's emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council,..... Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also spoke with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak .....
The U.S. effort to pare down the language of the Security Council statement condemning "acts" related to the effort was also a success, according to the Israeli official. "Definitely the Americans were making an effort, maybe they didn't get as much as we hoped, but they got a lot," the official said. "We'd like to express our thanks to the United States that worked behind the scenes to water down the [statement] at the United Nations," said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman.
Those efforts were led by U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice and her deputy,Alejandro Wolff. A key point of contention in the Security Council was whether there would be an outside investigation of the Miva Marmara affair, or whether it would be sufficient that Israel conduct its own inquiry. The United State has "every confidence that Israel can conduct a credible and impartial, transparent, prompt investigation internally," Wolff told reporters today.
Although Israel has not issued any official reaction, the officials saw three main changes between the first draft circulated by Turkey and the final draft adopted, which they credit to the work of the U.S. delegation. First, there was no mention of an independent investigation. Second, there was no time limit placed on the investigation. Third, there was no direct condemnation of Israel...
The White House announced the visit as a presidential delegation to the Palestinian investment conference. The delegation will include Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, top USAID official Alonzo Fulgham, Mitchell's deputy Mara Rudman, and Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine..."
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