Egypt rejects Israeli requests for more cooperation

Egyptian sources confirmed today to ArabicNews.com that Cairo has refused once more the Israeli call for agricultural cooperation including the two sides, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority, to implement projects in fields of land reclamation, horizontal expansion, irrigation, producing cereals for the four participants and the countries of the region.

Moreover Cairo rejected another request presented from Israel's prime minister to US Secretary of State Albright for activating the 'Taba' declaration including Egypt, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and the US, which came out of a meeting of foreign trade ministers in Taba in February 1995 according to the suggestion of former US Secretary of Commerce Ronald Brown.

Then Egypt renewed its refusal of three Israeli requests to take part in financing a project for renovating the library of Alexandria, buying natural gas, and implementing joint projects between the two countries' private sectors in the in the Sinai.

Egypt has several times expressed frustration at the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process due to Israel's uncompromising positions and constant "maneuvering" away from lasting solutions to the outstanding problems of the region, resulting in a deterioration from the previous progress achieved toward real and genuine peace in the region.