Egypt, Iraq warm to each other

Press, 6 July 1983, Page 6

Egypt, Iraq warm to each other

NZPA-Reuter Cairo Iraq and Egypt have agreed to discuss closer relations and to boots military co-operation, but they have stopped short of restoring full diplomatic ties. The agreement came after a three-day visit by the Iraqi Foreign Minister, Mr Tariq Aziz, who had talks with the Egyptian President, Mr Hosni Mubarak, and three meetings with Cairo’s Foreign Minister, Mr Kamal Hassan All. Mr Aziz is the most senior Iraqi to visit Egypt since Bagdad and most other Arab countries severed links with Cairo over the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. The two countries have now agreed to discuss how to revive frozen economic, agricultural, technical, and cultural agreements, and to consider signing new ones on the working conditions of about 1.5 million Egyptian workers in Iraq. An Egyptian foreign Ministry official said that they ■T

had agreed to maintain Ministerial talks and to revive a joint committee which has not met since the break in relations. Mr Aziz said that they did not discuss a resumption of diplomatic ties but Mr AH said that Egypt considered the visit a step towards an improvement in relations with the rest of the Arab

Mr Aziz and the Egyptian Defence Minister, Field Marshal Muhammad Abdel Halim abu Ghazala, yesterday discussed ways of boosting military co-opera-tion. Field Marshal abu Ghazala described co-operation and co-ordination between the Egyptian and Iraqi armies as sincere and practical. But he declined to give more details, which he said were classified information. Egypt has supported Iraq in its Gulf war with Iran since the outset in September 1980, supplied it with weapons and military spare parts but always denied sending any Regular troops to the front. The Iraqi Vice-President, Mr Taha Yassin Ramadan, said in an interview with an Egyptian magazine last month that about 15,000 Egyptian volunteers were fighting alongside Iraqi forces. Mr Aziz was to return home today.