VOA标准英语2009年-Clinton Promises New US Proposals for Mide

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the Obama administration will soon present "very specific proposals" to Israel and the Palestinians on how to advance toward a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict.
　
Sec. of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Egyptian FM Ahmed Aboul Gheit talk to the media at the State Department in Washington, 27 May 2009

She spoke¹ after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, who warned that further delay in peacemaking will cause difficulties extending beyond the Middle East.

Clinton spoke amid a flurry of U.S. diplomacy² on the Middle East, with U.S. envoy³ George Mitchell holding closed-door talks in London this week with senior Israeli officials, and President Obama preparing to meet Thursday with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Though Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited the White House last week, has not embraced full Palestinian statehood, Clinton said at a joint⁴ news event with her Egyptian counterpart that she and President Obama are fully⁵ committed to a two-state solution and see Egypt as an essential partner in helping⁶ realize that vision.
　
Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, (File)

Clinton said the administration is preparing very specific proposals for the two principles, and indicated it will ask Arab states in the region for confidence-building steps with Israel to improve the atmosphere for negotiations⁷. Under questioning, she said the administration wants to see a complete halt to West Bank settlement building by Israel. "The President was very clear when Prime Minister Netanyahu was here. He wants to see a stop to settlements. Not some settlements. Not outposts. Not natural-growth exceptions," she stressed. "We think it is in the best interest of the effort that we are engaged in that settlement expansion cease. That is our position, that is what we have communicated very clearly not only to the Israelis but to the Palestinians and others," she said.

Foreign Minister Aboul Gheit came to Washington as a stand-in for Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who canceled a planned White House visit earlier this week because of the recent death of his grandson.

The Egyptian Minister, alluding⁸ to Israeli suggestions that the Iranian nuclear program is the region's major problem, said he and Clinton discussed Iran but that the Palestinian question is the core issue and that continued inaction on it would pose dangers beyond the Middle East.

"In the absence of such negotiations, and success of the negotiations and seeing the emergence⁹ of Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel, then I think situation will worsen in this part of the world and we will be, all of us, not only people in the region but countries in the region but also the United States and the Western world as well as the world at large-we will be all witnessing a very difficult situation," he said.

Clinton and her Egyptian counterpart discussed plans for President Obama's visit next week to Cairo, where he will deliver a long-anticipated policy address June 4 urging reconciliation¹⁰ among Muslim states and the west. The President will make a brief stop in Saudi Arabia the day before to discuss regional peace efforts with King Abdullah.

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 diplomacy   

n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕

参考例句：

• The talks have now gone into a stage of quiet diplomacy.会谈现在已经进入了“温和外交”阶段。
• This was done through the skill in diplomacy. 这是通过外交手腕才做到的。

3 envoy   

n.使节，使者，代表，公使

参考例句：

• Their envoy showed no sign of responding to our proposals.他们的代表对我方的提议毫无回应的迹象。
• The government has not yet appointed an envoy to the area.政府尚未向这一地区派过外交官。

4 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

8 alluding   

提及，暗指( allude的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He didn't mention your name but I was sure he was alluding to you. 他没提你的名字，但是我确信他是暗指你的。
• But in fact I was alluding to my physical deficiencies. 可我实在是为自己的容貌寒心。

9 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

10 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。