Egypt, Israel OK Taba Peace Force
Egypt’s chief negotiator said Friday that agreement has been reached with Israel to deploy international peacekeepers in the disputed Sinai border area of Taba, the official Middle East News Agency reported.
But it also quoted the negotiator, Nabil Araby, as saying disagreement remains on some details of guidelines for international arbitration to determine whether Taba, a 250-acre resort strip overlooking the Red Sea, belongs to Egypt or Israel.
The semi-official newspaper Al Ahram quoted President Hosni Mubarak as saying the initial agreement was “very close.”
Israel did not return Taba in its withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula, which was completed in 1982 under terms of the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. A group of Israeli businessmen built a hotel on the site.
Israel agreed last January to Egypt’s demand that the territorial dispute be settled by international arbitration.
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