Israeli-Egyptian relations, five years after the two countries signed their peace treaty, could be vastly improved, Premier Yitzhak Shamir reportedly told U.S. special envoy Donald Rumsfeld at a meeting here Friday.
Rumsfeld flew to Jerusalem directly from Cairo where he had met with President Hosni Mubarak. Shamir, who briefed the Cabinet today on his discussions with the American envoy, is said to have stressed Israel’s dissatisfaction with the “cold’ peace” with Egypt. He spoke on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the treaty which was signed in Washington on March 26, 1979.
Government sources stressed, however, that the crucial military provisions of the treaty were, in the main, scrupulously observed by both sides. The problem is the freeze in normalization of relations which progressed initially but then stalled and has been virtually suspended since Egypt recalled its Ambassador from Tel Aviv when Israel invaded Lebanon in June, 1982.
The failure of the Egyptians to return their envoy and the various conditions demanded by Mubarak before doing so, has rankled the Israelis. Nevertheless, government sources conceded that even the limited type of peace with Egypt that exists today would have been a highly desirable dream a decade ago.
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