Last update - 00:00 29/11/2007
Egyptian FM: Arab states will respond favorably to settlement freeze
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Arab states would respond positively to an Israeli freeze on settlements in the West Bank would, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the state-run Egyptian daily Al-Ahram on Wednesday.
Gheit said the Arab response to meaningful diplomatic negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians would be equally favorable.
"If Israel were to negotiate with the Palestinians with good intentions and start demonstrating intentions to reach an agreement, the Arab side would respond positively to it," Gheit said.
He did not elaborate on the steps Arab states would take to express their support of such policies. He also did not say whether support of these policies would include an improvement in relations between Israel and Egypt, which have cooled recently.
The Egyptian foreign minister made similar comments in an interview with Haaretz last week, and during a meeting with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni last year, according to sources in Jerusalem.
Gheit's interview marks the first time such statements were published in Al-Ahram.
Israeli Ambassador in Cairo: Egypt refusing to open committee to expand normalization
The Israeli Ambassador in Cairo, Shalom Cohen, on Wednesday stated that Egypt is refusing to open a committee to weigh expanded normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt, despite the requirement to do so under agreements signed between the two states after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in 2005.
Cohen clarified however, that there are several areas in which relations between the two states have been "excellent," including the annual $1.4 billion in trade since the signing of the trade agreement between the U.S., Israel, and Egypt in 2004.
An envoy at the Egyptian embassy in Israel, Turk al-Khuny, stated that relations between the two states had survived a number of crises over the years, and that expansion of normalization is dependant upon the advancement of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Syrian daily Tishrin on Wednesday published an article stating that excessive focus on the Palestinian aspect of peace between Israel and the Arab world is insufficient to bring peace to the region and may in fact "damage the cause of peace."
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