United States Congressman John Kasich (R. Ohio) was due to arrive here today after two days in Egypt which included a 75-minute meeting yesterday with President Hosni Mubarak. Describing their meeting as “very open and very candid,” Kasich was quoted in reports from Cairo as saying that Mubarak told him that he welcomed a meeting with Israeli Premier Shimon Peres.
According to Kasich, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, Mubarak seeks a gradual improvement in relations between Israel and Egypt, and welcomes meeting with Peres some time next year.
Kasich indicated that Mubarak would prefer, however, that such a meeting produce what he described as “some kind of results.” Egyption officials have let it be known that the border dispute with Israel over the Taba region should be resolved before any meeting between Peres and Mubarak.
Egypt maintains that Taba, a tiny strip of beach on the Gulf of Aqaba near Eilat, is part of Sinai. Israel, meanwhile, in an effort to settle the dispute, has proposed joint adminstration of the area pending final determination of its legal ownership through the processes of conciliation and arbitration set forth in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty of 1979.
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