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OVERVIEW
OF THIS WEEK
Week Ending Saturday February 15, 1997
FRENCH SEEK BETTER DEFENSE TIES WITH ISRAEL
French Defense Minister Charles Millon pledged yesterday to revive the 1994 defense cooperation accord with Israel, saying he wants to increase sales of military equipment between the two countries. Touring Israel Aircraft Industries outside Lod, Millon acknowledged that the nearly three-year-old accord has not produced a significant volume of sales. The total annual volume of military trade between the two countries is $60 million. "It's true that in the exchange of equipment between France and Israel and Israel and France, the numbers are not high," Millon said. "We have to increase these numbers. This cooperation is not just economic but political." Millon said he hoped his two-day visit would lead to increased joint cooperation in the defense industries. He said he expects heightened activity in the months leading to the Paris Air Show in June. The French defense minister pointed to a little-publicized arms deal between Israel and France. This involved the acquiring of five Dolphin helicopters from the US subsidiary of the Paris-based Aerospatiale, Eurocopter. At the same time, IAI agreed to deliver the Hunter, an unmanned air vehicle, to the French. French officials said this was an exchange of the Dolphin for the Hunter. IAI officials said French-Israeli cooperation could extend into several spheres, such as electro-optics, avionics and satellites. French-Israeli defense cooperation had been virtually nil since president Charles de Gaulle imposed an arms embargo on Israel after the Six Day War. However, the 1994 defense cooperation agreement has led to some efforts, including a high-level strategic dialogue between the defense ministries of both countries. Still, defense industry sources said France, rated the world's third-largest defense exporter, sees Israel as a competitor in many areas. In addition, French fear of losing its Arab and Islamic customers has dampened any enthusiasm for much defense cooperation. However, Millon, on his first visit to Israel, said he was sending a top defence official here next week to lay the foundations for joint projects. France is interested in Israeli weapons technology, particularly in armor protection and avionics. (JP 2/13)
EGYPT BACKS SYRIAN POSITION ON TALKS
Egypt has come out fully behind Syria, saying the Syrian-Israeli peace talks must begin where they left off 12 months ago. Speaking at a joint news conference in Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa says he and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa agreed there should be no "new start" to the Israeli-Syrian peace talks. The term "new start" refers to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, who reiterated in Washington Friday his position that such talks should begin "without preconditions." Moussa and al-Sharaa spoke to reporters after holding talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian Vice-President Abdel-Halim Khaddam. Their talks came a day after Netanyahu's extensive discussions in Washington with President Clinton and other US officials on the peace process. Al-Sharaa said Syria was not insisting on "preconditions" for talks with Israel. "We are ready to resume negotiations tomorrow if Israel abides by what has been reached in previous years and does not return to point zero" al-Sharaa said. Syria has maintained that when Israeli-Syria peace talks broke off the two sides were on the point of agreeing to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau that Israeli troops captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Netanyahu and his advisers have repeatedly said that no such agreement exists. (UPI 2/15)
POSITIVE REACTION TO LATEST SUMMIT
Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinians' Yasser Arafat agreed at a summit on Sunday to start detailed discussions on further peace moves outlined in their Hebron self-rule accord. "We agreed on a mechanism to resolve these issues and advance them," Netanyahu told reporters, saying Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) committees would begin talks next Sunday. He said the committee on economic matters would meet in the coming week. On March 7, Israel is due to start a three-stage troop withdrawal from rural areas of the West Bank. The pullouts are scheduled to be completed by mid-1998. The PLO also has been pressing for the operation of Palestinian sea and air ports and resumption of so-called "final-status" talks on a permanent peace settlement. "We had a very important meeting just now...and we discussed the details of the problems we are facing, especially the points which have to be implemented after the Hebron agreement," Arafat said. Netanyahu and Arafat met for an hour and 40 minutes at Erez in Gaza just across the border from Israel. "We had, I think, a very productive meeting," Netanyahu said, describing the summit as a "promising continuation" of the Hebron deal. "We discussed...our outstanding concerns and the fulfillment of mutual obligations. We spoke about all the areas that concern us, that came about in the end of the Hebron agreement," he said. Earlier, Israeli Cabinet Secretary Danny Naveh said Israel intended to keep its commitment to carry out the first West Bank rural redeployment on March 7. Israel was due to free 25 Palestinian women prisoners on Monday or Tuesday, officials for both sides said. Palestinian sources said they were the total of women prisoners among the 5,000 Palestinians held by Israel. Justice Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said he would not sign a recommendation to release three of the women because one was convicted of murder and the other two were found guilty of attempted murder. A Justice Ministry spokeswoman said Netanyahu could sign the recommendations to be sent to President Ezer Weizman. Israel's High Court issued an order barring the prisoner release until it hears a petition against it Monday morning, a court spokesman said. (REUTERS 2/9)
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