Analysts: Moscow multilateral will not enhance Arab trade with Israel
Regional-Israel, Politics, 2/2/2000

Analysts in the Gulf on Tuesday said the multilateral talks which started in Moscow on Tuesday would not give Israel an entry card into the economies of the Arab Gulf states.

The prominent Saudi economist Ihsan Abu Haleiqa said in a press statement that economy is a relation between two sides, "a relation that necessitates confidence," adding that dealing with Israel does not reveal confidence. He said that economic privileges achieved by the Arab states which signed peace agreements with Israel were very weak.

For his part Henry Azzam, a senior economist in the "Middle East Capital Group" which has Amman as a headquarters, said that peace in the Middle East might minimize risks of investments in the region to the least possible limit, strengthen investments by Arab Gulf states in other Arab countries as well as help reorient resources into economic and social development.

He simultaneously stressed that most investments will continue to be in the markets which have liquidity, including the USA, Europe and the Far East.

Meanwhile, several economists indicated that Israel might exploit its traditional relations with the US against the interest of the Gulf states.

An analyst who asked not to be identified said that Israel seeks, due to its supremacy in technical and industrial aspects, to drown the Gulf markets with its commodities, but only if these Gulf states eventually desire to establish relations with Israel, a thing which has not yet happened.

Previous Stories:
  El-Husseini: unified Arab point of view in multilateral discussions   (2/1/2000)
  Moussa urges Israel to comply with commitments   (2/1/2000)
  Israel urged to join the NPT   (2/1/2000)

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