Levy: Egypt obstructs Arab-Israeli relations

Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy has accused Cairo of urging the Arab states not to improve their relations with Israel before it resumes peace negotiations with Syria. Levy added that Egypt also tried to resume multilateral negotiations between Israel and the majority of the countries surrounding it.

Levy was quoted on Wednesday as saying to the Israel Radio that, "Egypt has a double-standard outlook to the matters. It sees that peace is important with Israel on the one hand and is trying to obstruct any Israeli attempt to improve its relations with the Arab states, on the other hand."

A spokesman for the Israeli Foreign Ministry, who refused to be identified, said the countries targeted by Egypt are Oman, Qatar, Tunisia and Morocco.

He added that during the recent meeting for the donor countries in Tokyo, Egypt tried to obstruct unofficial meetings between the representatives of countries concerned with the multilateral negotiations.

He indicated that an agreement in this respect was not reached because of the preconditions set by Egypt of relaunching, first, negotiations with Syria.