U.S. envoy encourages Arab countries on normalization with Israel

CAIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell encouraged Arab countries to normalize their relationship with Israel after his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Monday in Cairo.

U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell speaks at a press conference after his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, in Cairo, capital of Egypt, on July 27, 2009. George Mitchell arrived in Cairo late Sunday in an effort to promote peace process in the Middle East.(Xinhua/Zhang Ning)

"We are meeting with the leaders of many Arab nations in the region to encourage them to take genuine steps towards normalization," Mitchell said in a press conference after his meeting with Mubarak aiming at reviving peace process in the Middle East.

"We're not asking anyone to achieve full normalization at this time, we recognize that will come further down the road in this process," Mitchell added.

It is the fifth visit for Mitchell to Egypt in the frame of the Egyptian-American efforts to revive Middle East peace process.