By REUTERS
WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Egypt's foreign minister to keep lines of communication open with Israel amid tensions over an Egyptian push against militants in the neighboring Sinai desert, the State Department said on Thursday.Clinton spoke with Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr on Wednesday and stressed the importance of acting transparently as Cairo deploys aircraft and tanks in Sinai, for the first time since a 1973 war with Israel, to pursue Islamist militants blamed for killing 16 border guards in an August 5 attack."This call was in keeping with a series of contacts we've had in recent days with both Egyptians and Israelis encouraging both sides to keep the lines of communication open," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.Israeli officials have expressed concern over the Egyptian deployment, saying the vehicles' entry into the Sinai was not coordinated and was in violation of a 1979 peace treaty.
Israel has not notified the US of its plan to attack Iran