Several small Israeli-owned factories in EI Arish will have to close down and move out by May 15, it was reported today because the Egyptians, in talks on the return of EI Arish, have made it clear that they preferred that no Israelis remain in areas to be restored to Egyptian sovereignty.
EI Arish will be handed back on May 27. Premier Menachem Begin and President Anwar Sadat are to meet there the next day for talks on the subsequent stages of the normalization process. The Egyptians have agreed to permit the 3000-odd EI Arish residents who work in Israel or in eastern Sinai to continue doing so for the time being. Arrangements will have to be made for their crossing the new demarcation lines.
But any hopes of “economic cooperation” involving the factories at EI Arish will have to be shelved, at least for the time being. The Egyptian side is evidently not interested in such cooperation at this stage.
A high level delegation of Egyptian officials, under Sadat’s Cabinet Secretary Hassan Kmel, is expected in Israel within two weeks to prepare for the Sadat-Begin meeting at EI Arish. The two leaders will also fly together to Beersheba to appear before university students. The talks with Hassan Kmel’s party are also likely to focus on questions of tangible further steps in the normalization process that, presumably would be announced by Begin and Sadat at their meeting.
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