Washington (CNN) -- In the wake of last Friday's ransacking by protesters of the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, U.S. officials have engaged in a flurry of diplomatic activity intended to calm tensions in the Middle East.
President Barack Obama called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke with Egyptian Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt's Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke twice with Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamad Kamil Amir to express her concerns, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
"Her message was we need to get the situation under control; you have obligations under the Vienna Convention; please do what you can to protect Israeli citizens, and this is dangerous not only in your relationship with Israel but in terms of implications for the region as a whole," Nuland said.
U.S. officials are concerned that tensions between Israel and Egypt could heighten anti-Israeli sentiment in the region in advance of next week's opening of the U.N. General Assembly. That is where the Palestinians are expected to launch a bid for statehood, a move Nuland said last week the United States would veto.
Nuland said Monday that officials were gratified by weekend statements from senior Israeli and Egyptian officials "underscoring the importance of the relationship with each other, calling on all sides for calm, and bringing the situation back under control."
The immediate crisis in Cairo seems to have ended, she said. "Both governments have made appropriate statements, calm seems to be returned to Cairo, and so we consider that responsible, and we want to go forward from there."
In addition, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has contacted a "broad cross-section" of officials in the region to urge calm and to stress the importance of peace between Egypt and Israel "to the region as a whole," Nuland said.
A senior State Department official said that Feltman spoke with Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani, Egyptian presidential candidate Amr Moussa, Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Lassim, Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubair and officials in Kuwait and Egyptian foreign ministries.
The issue ignited on Friday, when Egyptian protesters tore down a wall surrounding the building that houses the Israeli Embassy on its 12th floor and entered its offices. Once inside, the protesters threw papers bearing Hebrew writing from the windows and into the streets.
Initially, police and military forces took no action as demonstrators destroyed the wall that had protected the high-rise. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said about 3,000 protesters had participated in the wall's destruction.
An Egyptian commander at the embassy told CNN that security personnel had been ordered to avoid confrontations with protesters, who cheered its demolition and chanted for the ouster of Israel's ambassador.
Egypt's military leaders promised Saturday to re-establish order.
Officials reactivated the country's emergency law, according to Mohamed Hegazy, spokesman for the prime minister. The government also vowed to try those responsible for the attack on the Israeli Embassy, which pushed Israel to withdraw its diplomatic personnel from Egypt, Hegazy said.
After the incident, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel will stick to its 1979 peace agreement with Egypt.
Egyptians have been angry about the killing last month of five Egyptian police officers by Israeli soldiers when Israel went after militants who had attacked civilians near the Israeli-Egyptian border.
Since the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak in February, many Egyptians have taken to the streets to call for the end of diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.
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