Gen. Avraham Tamir, Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, said today that the Israeli-Egyptian negotiations over the Taba border dispute and normalization of relations are going well and should be completed in a few weeks. The two issues are being discussed separately but in tandem.
Tamir, and David Kimche, Director General of the Foreign Ministry, head the Israeli negotiators and the Egyptian delegation is headed by Dr. Nabil El-Arabi. The working teams of both sides met yesterday at the Accadia Hotel in Herzliyah to resume the latest round of talks which began in Cairo last week.
The meetings are the second since Israel’s Inner Cabinet, on January 13, accepted Egyptian demands to submit the Taba dispute to international binding arbitration, with the proviso that at least the first few months of the process be devoted to seeking conciliation, meaning a compromise between the disputants. Tamir said the current talks are concerned with the terms of reference of the arbitration panel — yet to be selected — and its powers and duties.
Kimche said this morning that Israel would not link the compromise approach to arbitration to any conditions for the implementation of agreements on the normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt. He said Israel wanted to keep the normalization aspects of the 1979 peace treaty separate from the Taba issue.
Otherwise, he explained to reporters, the arbitrators could have a say in how the agreements already reached between the two countries should be carried out, and this is not in Israel’s interests. At the same time, he said, Cairo has agreed that progress in the talks is a two-way affair covering both the terms of arbitration and normalization.
TALKS HAVE PRODUCED SOME PROGRESS
Kimche agreed with Tamir that the first day of talks produced some progress. “We are moving at a good pace, but there is a lot of work still to be done,” he said. El-Arabi confirmed this. He said in an Israel Radio interview today that there are many subjects which still require intensive discussions.
The Egyptians have requested a meeting with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin tomorrow and after seeing him they will go to Jerusalem to attend prayer services at the El Aksa Mosque. Friday is the Moslem sabbath. On Saturday, the visitors will tour northern Israel and a final session of talks will be held in Herzliyah Sunday.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
