Mubarak makes aid agreement with Americans

Press, 6 February 1982, Page 8

Mubarak makes aid agreement with Americans

NZPA Washington The Reagan Administration concluded an agreement yesterday with Egypt allowing greater leeway in how its one billion dollars (SNZI.24 billion) a year in American aid funds, the largest in the world, are spent. The American Treasury Secretary (Mr Donald Regan) made the announcement after a meeting with the Egyptian President . (Mr Hosni Mubarak). One aim, Mr Regan said, was to attract more American investment in Egypt. Details will be made public later, but Mr Regan told reporters there was no plan to boost assistance.

Since taking over after President Anwar Sadat’s assassination, Mr Mubarak has set as a top goal, bringing greater order to the Egyptian economy, which is hampered by a sluggish bureaucracy and other problems. The Egyptian leader asked the. Reagan Administration for more authority to decide where to spend the American 'aid that has poured into Egypt since it turned away from the Soviet

Union and renewed diplomatic ties with the United States only eight years ago. "He was urging us to go forward so we could help his people in a better manner, Mr Regan said, adding that he thought American aid could be used effectively despite Egypt’s difficulties. While economic aid evidently will not be boosted immediately, there is no decision yet by the Administration on Mr Mubarak’s desire to increase military aid from the present level of SUS9OO million (SNZI.I2 billion) a year.

Earlier yesterday, President Reagan acknowledged that with Israeli-Egyptian negotiations over Palestinian autonomy stalemated, the United States had changed its goal and was now only aiming for a declaration of principles. Ending two days of talks with Mr Mubarak, Mr Reagan said a declaration “is the best means of making tangible progress toward a solution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects.” With the autonomy talks deadlocked, the United States, Egypt, and Israel all have given up hope of agree-

ing by April 25 on a solution to the Palestinian problem. That is the deadline for Israel to relinquish the last third of the Sinai Desert to Egypt.

A declaration would reaffirm their commitment to the pledge they took at Camp David in 1978 to extend “full autonomy” to the 1.3 million Palestinian Arabs living on the West Bank of the Jordan River and in Gaza.

In remarks on the Egyption President’s report from Washington, President Mubarak and President Reagan joined in committing themselves anew to the search for peace in the Middle East, and for the first time on his four-day visit, Mr Mubarak endorsed the 1979 Camp David accords by name. On Wednesday, Mr Mubarak forcefully expressed his support for a “national for the Palestinian people, which is not part of the American and Israeli approach to the search for peace in the Middle East.

“We are determined to pursue our peace efforts until a concrete settlement is reached according to the Camp David accords,” Mr Mubarak said.