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  Middle East Diplomacy: German Foreign Minister to Push for Gaza Cease-Fire

Middle East Diplomacy German Foreign Minister to Push for Gaza Cease-Fire

As peace negotiations stall in Egypt and war continues to rage in the Gaza Strip, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is traveling to the region to meet with its leaders and help move talks forward.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will fly to the Middle East late Friday as part of a three-day tour in which he will meet with Egyptian, Palestinian and Israeli leaders in an attempt to push stalling peace negotiations forward.

"I'm deeply convinced we must help through talks with the parties involved in the conflict and their neighbors … so that the call for a cease-fire turns into a cease-fire," Steinmeier said Friday, according to Reuters.

Despite Thursday's UN Security Council resolution calling for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, violence continues in the Gaza Strip.

In Egypt, diplomatic talks aimed at brokering a truce produced little progress Friday. "The truce talks are going nowhere at the moment," a senior European diplomat involved in the talks told Reuters. Egypt is unhappy with proposals for deploying foreign peacekeeping troops on its soil, and Israel is not satisfied with the measures proposed for stopping the flow of arms being smuggled to Hamas through tunnels beneath the Egypt-Gaza border.

Steinmeier will first fly to Egypt, where he will meet early Saturday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the resort of Sharm el-Sheik. He will then fly to Israel for meetings scheduled with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

Germany has sought to play an active role in European efforts to broker a peace deal, and Chancellor Angela Merkel has spoken with regional leaders a number of times to voice her concerns about the current conflict.

Asked if Berlin would be willing to send troops to the region to help enforce any settlement, government spokesman Thomas Steg said Friday that "the government has made clear it is aware of its responsibility and will not shy away from its responsibility."

jtw -- with wire reports