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Egyptians Fighting Israeli Upgrade of Relations with EU

[Ha'aretz ] Barak Ravid - Egypt has recently been attempting to thwart a proposed agreement to upgrade Israel's relationship with the EU. The proposed deal would significantly improve Israeli access to European markets, and could add billions of dollars to Israel's economy. Egyptian ambassadors in London, Paris, Brussels, Madrid, Rome and other European capitals have met with high-level foreign ministry officials in their respective countries to ask them to reconsider the agreement with Israel. Senior Israeli Foreign Ministry officials warned their Egyptian counterparts that Israel views this effort very gravely and wants it stopped. Israel's assessment, a senior government official said, is that the Egyptian campaign constitutes retaliation for a U.S. Congress decision to freeze up to $200 million in American military aid to Egypt. Cairo blames Israel for this freeze, because Israel has frequently complained to Washington about Egypt's failure to combat arms smuggling into Gaza. Israel also sent a formal protest to the PA Monday over a letter sent by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to the OECD, in which he asked the organization to reconsider its invitation to Israel to join. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who met Monday with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas, told Abbas that Israel deems the letter completely unacceptable.
2008-06-03 01:00:00
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