Two days of multilateral talks on Middle East economic issues ended here Friday without a final statement but are being regarded as a moderate success.
The governor of the Bank of Israel, Jacob Frenkel, singled out for praise a proposal for a bank for regional development, put forward by both France and Egypt.
It was only opposition from Saudi Arabia that prevented Egypt from advocating its proposal more vigorously, Israeli delegates said.
Egyptian delegation head Merbat Tallawi said wide participation in the conference from both within the region and outside it demonstrated the importance of stability in the Middle East to the rest of the world.
She also called for confidence-building measures, such as allowing Palestinians to have their own banks.
Delegates agreed to add trade, agriculture and energy to the issues under discussion. These now also include tourism, communications, training for Palestinians in administration during the transitional period of autonomy, enhancing the level of Palestinian universities through agreements with European institutes of higher learning, and business and cultural development.
The talks opened last Thursday only after a new head was named for the Palestinian negotiating team to replace a delegate considered unacceptable by Israel.
Yusuf Sayagh, a member of the Palestine National Council, the so-called parliament of the Palestine Liberation Organization, developed a case of diplomatic flu, enabling a successor more acceptable to the Israelis, Zeyn Mayasi, to head the delegation.
Chairman David Gor Booth of Britain said just the presence of Israelis and Arabs at the negotiating table made the talks a success. Israel had boycotted an earlier round of the talks.
The next round of talks is tentatively scheduled to be held in Rome next March.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
