Leon Panetta, the US Secretary of Defense and former head of the CIA, arrived in Cairo on Tuesday for meetings with Egypt's military leaders that will cover relations with Israel, as well as the fate of an American citizen detained on accusations of spying for Israel.
Panetta also said he will press Egyptian leaders to move to the elections and quickly put a civilian government in place.
The defense secretary, who hopes to defuse tensions between Cairo and Tel Aviv, was in Israel yesterday.
Tensions erupted between Egypt and Israel following Israeli forces' killing of six Egyptian policemen on 18 August on the Egypt-Israel border, with Israel claiming it was chasing criminals who escaped into Egypt after killing eight Israelis near the southern city of Eilat.
Before leaving Israel, Panetta said he is urging the two sides to calm the security situation in Sinai, adding that he will call on Egyptian officials to release dual American-Israeli national Ilan Grapel, who was arrested in Egypt on 12 June on charges of spying, a claim Israel has denied.
Panetta told reporters in Tel Aviv on Monday that he hopes Grapel is released. However, he didn’t clarify if this will be accomplished during his visit to Cairo.
The Egyptian government hinted on Saturday that releasing Grapel is possible.
It is considered unlikely by some officials that Egypt would choose Panetta's visit as the time to release Grapel, who has been held since June 12. But Panetta would not totally close the door Tuesday when asked about the issue.
"There's really nothing I can say about the specifics of that," Panetta, the former CIA director, told reporters at a news conference in Tel Aviv, where he met with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. "We have made our concerns known to Egypt about holding that individual and we would hope that … they will take steps to release that individual."
