The U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday wrapped up a two day visit here, during which Iran's continued nuclear program and Egypt's new Muslim Brotherhood-led government headlined talks with Israeli counterparts.

Clinton's first visit to Israel in two years followed a weekend meeting in Cairo with President Mohamed Morsi, who won the first elections held in Egypt since former president Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in February 2011.

However, while Israel largely viewed Mubarak as a guarantor for the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement - one of the most important deals in Israel's history - leading Brotherhood members are now calling for its annulment.

"It was important both for the United States and Israel that Secretary Clinton went to Cairo before she came to Jerusalem," former diplomat Zalman Shoval told Xinhua on Monday.

Shoval, who served as Israeli ambassador to the Untied States on two separate terms, assessed that the visit "was an opportunity for Clinton to make it very clear to the new regime in Cairo that the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty is a fundamental interest of the United States and not only to Israel, or not only to Egypt."

Since Mubarak stepped down, a military council has ruled Egypt, and, while Morsi is formally the president, many of the powers that Mubarak enjoyed - including the right to declare war - have now been transferred to the Egyptian army.

The Egyptian army is the second largest recipient of U.S. military aid, after Israel, and Egyptian officials know that aid is conditioned on upholding the peace agreement, a point that Clinton made very clear during her stay in Egypt.

"Coming here from Cairo, the Israeli government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak wanted to hear these assurances - which are very important to Israel," Shoval said.

"And beyond public statements, Clinton may have in her possession some other assurances from the Egyptians which she would like to bring to the attention of Netanyahu," he added.

A NUCLEAR IRAN

The other main issue that was discussed during Clinton's visit was how to approach Iran.

While Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama have both said that Iran should not be allowed to cross the nuclear threshold, there are disagreements on how to prevent it from happening.

Iran and the so-called P5+1 group - the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany - have met on three occasions over the last six months, but so far they have been unable to convince Iran to give up its nuclear enrichment program, a development that Israel is most concerned about.

Shoval said he believed that Netanyahu made it clear to Clinton that Israel is fast approaching a moment where - as a minimum - not just the United States and not just Europe, but the so-called P5+1 western states must impose much tougher sanctions on Iran in order to prevent the need for a military operation.

He added that Netanyahu delivered the same message to American National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, who was here on a secret meeting over the weekend.

Shoval added that Donilon is perhaps even more central than the Secretary of State in crafting U.S policy vis a vis Iran.

"Israel may make some concrete proposal in that respect, but it will be an exchange of views. The fact that Clinton and Donilon were here almost at the same time speaks for the importance which the American attach also to the Israeli attitude in this question, " Shoval said.

Geographic and military capabilities are two of the main reasons why Israel and the Untied States disagree about when or if the time would come to launch a military operation against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Israel, already within range of Iran's long range missiles, lacks the military firepower of the United States which means that Washington can wait longer before it decide to strike and still make a significant impact on Iran nuclear program.

Prof. Eytan Gilboa, of the Bar-Ilan University, said that for the sanction to work, Iran would have to decide to stop its nuclear weapons program, but so far this hasn't happened.

"What the United States wants is an assurance from Israel to refrain a military action against Iran's nuclear facilities, at least until after the presidential elections in November," Gilboa said.

"Clinton came here two years ago, and she had been here before primarily because of the presidential elections; the Republican candidate Mitt Romney is coming here in a few weeks and Obama didn 't want to come, so he sent her," he added.

Gilboa argued that Clinton was sent here so the Obama campaign can tell American pro-Israel supporters that he cares about Israel and that the two countries have a lot of agreement on the events in the Middle East.