The latest talks in autonomy began in Alexandria at the top negotiating level today amid charges by Israeli ministers that the Egyptians were deliberately blocking progress. Israel’s Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir was scheduled to have his first meeting with Prime Minister Mustapha Khalil, head of the Egyptian negotiating team. Interior Minister Yosef Burg, head of the Israeli delegation, met with U.S. special Ambassador Sol Linowitz. But a three-party meeting scheduled for this morning was postponed until later in the day.
Government sources in Cairo predicted that little or no progress would be made. Israeli ministers were quoted as saying that the Egyptians were holding back the talks and that the recent attacks on Israel in the Egyptian media were on attempt to conceal this. According to the Israelis, the Egyptian tactic ever since the autonomy talks began was to bring up subjects for discussion but then switch to other issues as soon as some progress was made on the first subjects.
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