Barak for establishing Middle East regional cooperation organization

The Kuwaiti daily al-Rai al-Am quoted well-informed Israeli sources as saying on Sunday that the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is crystallizing a plan to establish an organization for regional cooperation in the Middle East similar to that of the southeast Asian states, and this organization will be a central administration to create a network of new relations in the region after signing the Syrian-Israeli peace agreement which will be a vast economic gate for the Arabs.

The sources explained that the crystallized plan is based on the example of "ASEAN, which abides its members not to interfere each in the other's affairs."

The Kuwaiti paper also quoted Israeli officials as saying that, "The type of noninterference and living together among countries which necessarily do not love each other."

Israeli analyst Allouf Bin, who is close to Barak, said the comparison (resembles) between Singapore and Israel is very large, as Singapore is a small state amid a huge Islamic region that lives in fear of invasion, but it enjoys good economic progress and a military force.

He commented that if the people of Singapore have learned security from Israel, it is ripe time now for Israel to learn from them how they live in peace.