Israel, Egypt to Resume Talks on Disputed Taba Region

Israel and Egypt will resume their long-suspended negotiations over the disputed Taba region near Eilat this week. The talks will get under way at Ismailia, in Egypt, tomorrow and continue through Thursday. The Israeli delegation will be headed by Shmuel Divon of the Foreign Ministry and Brig. Gen. Dov Sion, the army’s chief liaison officer with the Egyptians. The initial session will deal solely with Taba, a strip of beach on the Gulf of Aqaba which Israel claims and which Egypt insists is part of Sinai. But agreement was reached to discuss other matters of mutual concern at later negotiating sessions.

That is consistent with Israel’s long-standing position that the Taba dispute must be taken up in the context of normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt and implementation of their peace treaty signed in 1979.

FOCUS IS ON INTERIM AGREEMENT

Cairo broke off the Taba talks after Israel invaded Lebanon last summer. The session at Ismailia tomorrow will focus on an interim arrangement, not a final settlement of the dispute. The distinction was made in an accord signed by Israel and Egypt last April 25, the day before Israel completed its withdrawal from Sinai.

That accord provided that no new construction projects should be undertaken on the 700 meter-long beachfront but it allowed projects already underway to continue. Israel, therefore, completed the multi-million dollar Sonesta, a luxury resort hotel which as been doing a brisk business since it opened late last year. The Egyptians claim, however, that opening the hotel was an infringement of the April 25 accord.

Under the terms of the Israel-Egyptian peace treaty, disputes that cannot be settled by negotiation must be submitted to “conciliation or arbitration.” Egypt is pressing for arbitration. Israel is opposed on grounds that the other stages have not yet been exhausted.