Egypt- Israel to sign a memorandum of understanding

The Egyptian foreign minister Ahmad Abu al-Ghait and his Israeli peer Silvan Shalom will sign in Cairo on Thursday a memorandum of understanding on the deployment of some 700 soldiers of the Egyptian borders guards to monitor the borders between Egypt and Gaza, in the course of preparations to implement the unilateral Israeli withdrawal plan from Gaza.

Egypt, also at the meantime trains members of the Palestinian security to assume their responsibilities in the areas where Israel will pull out. Egypt is also making a dialogue with leaders of the Palestinian groups in the course of attempts to reach a truce that permits the resumption of peace negotiations.

Moreover, in the course of current improvement in the relations between Cairo and Tel Aviv, Egypt freed in December 2004 the Israeli spy Azzam Azzam for 6 Egyptian students detained by the occupation army under the charge of sneaking to Gaza to carry out attacks.

On December 17, 2004, Egypt, Israel and the USA signed the qualified industrial areas agreement ( QUIZ ) which allows Egypt to export its products to the American markets exempted from customs fees under the precondition that 11.7% of its components are manufactured in Israel.