Egyptian Minister fails to settle border dispute

Press, 18 March 1982, Page 8

Egyptian Minister fails to settle border dispute

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The Egyptian Foreign Minister (Mr Kamal Hassan Ali) will wind up a three-day visit to Israel today apparently without reaching agreement on two disputes that brought him to the Jewish State. Mr Ali came to try to end a row over a proposed visit to Israel by President Hosni Mubarak and to settle differences over where the Sinai border is to run after the Israelis complete their pullback from the desert peninsula next month. Mr Mubarak has said he wants his visit to be brief and to. omit Jerusalem. The Israeli’s' insist that Mr Mubarak, like his late predecessor. Anwar Sadat,....must pay

a State visit to the city they have proclaimed their capital.

Yesterday Mr Ali gave the Israeli Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) a message from President Mubarak. But after a meeting lasting one hour 45 minutes, he said Mr Begin had renewed the invitation to the Egyptian leader but could not give any date or itinerary for the visit.

The second dispute involves 15 points in Sinai. The two countries differ over border demarcations, particularly south of Israel’s port city of Eilat, where the Israelis have built a tourist site.

Mr Ali said only, that the

border disputes had been discussed during his talk with Mr Begin and later with the Foreign Minister (Mr Yitzhak Shamir) and the Defence Minister (Mr Ariel Sharon). Israeli State radio reported that both sides agreed to defer a decision on the issue. Mr Ali and Mr Shamir agreed to meet four times a year to discuss future problems that might arise between the two countries. Israeli ultra-nationalists declared at a Jerusalem mass meeting yesterday that Israel should call off the Sinai withdrawal because of the border disputes and Mr Mubarak’s refusal to visit Jerusalem.