Tripartite attempt in the Dead Sea to revive economic normalization, Jordanian- Israeli agreements
Jordan-Israel, Politics, 6/24/2003

The world economic forum which concluded its deliberations in al-Shouna at the Dead Sea, in Jordan, witnessed an Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian attempt to strengthen the normalization of relations, economically.

An attempt, which is particular, manifested in the Israeli idea to found a free trade area with Jordan and a joint industrial area.

A series of bilateral and tripartite meetings and talks were held among the delegations of the three sides in the context of enhancing the economic track. A matter which seemed to be an attempt from the participants in the meeting on the coast of the Dead Sea to compensate for the block of political progress, or to have the economy as an introduction to proceed in the political settlement efforts sponsored by the USA.

The Israeli minister of commerce and industry Ehud Olmert held talks with the Jordanian prime minister Ali Abul Ragheb. He also met with the Palestinian minister of the economy and trade and the Jordanian minister of industry and commerce who said that the meeting had achieved great progress.

Official sources said that the talks between Abul Ragheb and Olmert dealt with "revision of economic agreements signed between the two sides, noting that they also stressed the importance of supporting the project of Red Sea to Dead Channel project and cooperation in this regard." The Jordanians, the Palestinians and the Israelis have reached an initial agreement on preparing a detailed study on the economic feasibility to founding a channel to link the Red Sea with the Dead Sea.

The Jordanian minister of water and irrigation Hazem al-Naser said following his meeting with the Israeli infrastructure minister Yosef Paritzki and the Palestinian planning minister Nabil Qassis that "an initial agreement was approved on the terms of preparing the detailed feasibility study for the project and its environmental and social implications.

Meantime, the Palestinian foreign minister Nabil Shaath stressed to the US Secretary Of State Colin Powell "we do not want more free trade agreements with the USA, the problem lies in our inability to transport our products and teams because of the Israeli siege," noting that there has been a free trade agreement with the USA since 1995.

However, politics was predominant on the discussions relating to the Palestinian situation. The Palestinian labor minister Ghassan al-Khatib said " we have repeatedly tried to raise issues on the Palestinian employment and labor force, but it seemed that these issued seemed to be less attractive in comparison to the political issues." He said "there is an implicit recognition that any economic success is linked to achieving a political progress on the ground."

Previous Stories:
  Jordan, Israel to found a joint channel between the Red Sea, Dead Sea, financed by the EU   (6/21/2003)
  Jordan, Israel to found a joint channel between the Red Sea, Dead Sea, financed by the EU   (6/21/2003)
  Jordanian attache in Tel Aviv   (6/11/2003)
  Jordan denies agreement with Israel to return Jordanian ambassador   (6/9/2003)
  Trade volume increase between Jordan, Israel   (1/8/2003)
  al-Hadath: Jordanian businessmen to withdraw their investments from Israel   (12/17/2002)
  Jordan and Israel announce project to save Dead Sea   (9/3/2002)

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