Moussa, El-Baz meet with Israeli envoy on Wye government
Egypt-Israel, Politics, 11/16/1998

Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa discussed on Sunday with the political advisor of the Israeli government, Uzi Arad, the steps taken by Israel to carry out the Wye River agreement concerning the second phase of redeployment from the West Bank after the Israeli Cabinet ratified the memorandum of understanding signed during October in Washington under the patronage of US President Bill Clinton.

Arad is the first Israeli official to visit Egypt following the agreement. He arrived in Cairo on Saturday and met on Sunday with the Egyptian president's advisor for political affairs, Osama El-Baz, at a luncheon banquet the latter held in his honor.

El-Baz strongly rejected Israel's resumption of settlement activities at the entrance of East Jerusalem in Jabal Abu Ghneim. He asserted that the "settlement is considered as a violation of all agreements signed on the Palestinian track and a violation of resolutions of the UN Security Council."

Arad's visit to Egypt came at an Israeli request conveyed by the Israeli ambassador to Egypt to the Egyptian Foreign Ministry in order to acquaint the Egyptian government with steps taken by the Israeli government to implement the Wye agreement.

As Arad was calling for revitalizing cooperation with Egypt, the Egyptian foreign minister said, "The Israeli conditions placed on implementing the Wye agreement are a violation of the agreement." Moussa asserted that East Jerusalem is a part of the Arab territories occupied in 1967 which is under UN Security Council resolution 242, noting that sovereignty over Jerusalem is under dispute and subject to final status negotiations.

Moussa rejected Israel's attempts to abrogate the third stage of redeployment or to limit it to one percent as claimed by the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Moussa added, "Implementing the third stage is a very important and a main issue to achieve an optimum progress on the Palestinian track."

Previous Stories:
  Reduction in US aid to Egypt and Israel   (10/22/1998)
  Arab - Israeli parliamentarians accuses Natenyahu of obstructing agreement   (10/17/1998)
  Egypt rejects Israeli requests for more cooperation   (10/13/1998)

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