Israel, Egypt Reopen Talks on Disputed Sinai Beach

Egypt and Israel on Sunday reopened long-stalled negotiations here over a disputed sliver of Sinai Peninsula beach-front property. Both sides said they hope that the talks will lead to a broader thaw in the “cold peace” between them, but minor signs of friction cropped up almost immediately.

In his opening statement, the chief Egyptian delegate, Abdel-Halim Badawi, accused the Israelis of violating “the spirit and the letter” of an earlier agreement calling for arbitration of the border dispute.

Sunday’s opening session ended an hour earlier than scheduled, and the starting hour of today’s morning session was put back an hour.

Israeli sources said Sunday’s schedule change was made to allow more time for the two sides to prepare “new ideas” for today’s session. They said Sunday’s meeting was “conducted in a good spirit with an open mind.”

Yet observers speculated that the schedule changes might also suggest that the two sides were too far apart on key issues to continue talks Sunday night.

The talks here are the first of their kind between the two nations since March, 1983--six months after Egypt withdrew its ambassador to Tel Aviv to protest Israel’s June, 1982, invasion of Lebanon and the later massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Chatilla refugee camps by Lebanese Christian militiamen.

At issue are interim arrangements at Taba, about four miles south of Eilat on the Gulf of Aqaba--a finger of the Red Sea where Egypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia all meet.

Taba is the largest of 14 disputed parcels of land left for negotiation when Israel completed its withdrawal from the Sinai in April, 1982, after 15 years of military occupation. An accord on the eve of the pullout established ground rules for Taba pending final resolution of the dispute, by arbitration if necessary.

Egypt has said that the return of Taba is one of three conditions that must be met for a full normalization of its relations with Israel. The other two are an Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and progress on issue of a Palestinian homeland.

Both sides claim Taba. Israel operates a luxury hotel, a tourist village and a public beach there, and, in practice, exercises sovereignty over the parcel of land.