RUSSIA: ISRAELI AND ARAB LEADERS SET DATES FOR RESUMPTION OF DELAYED TALKS ON MIDDLE EAST ECONOMIC COOPERATION

Record ID: 399012

  • Title: RUSSIA: ISRAELI AND ARAB LEADERS SET DATES FOR RESUMPTION OF DELAYED TALKS ON MIDDLE EAST ECONOMIC COOPERATION
  • Date: 3rd February 2000
  • Summary: MOSCOW, RUSSIA (FEBRUARY 1, 2000) (REUTERS) 1. HAS DELEGATES GATHERING IN THE LOBBY OF THE PRESIDENT HOTEL 0.05 2. HAS U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT ARRIVES AND WALKS TO CONFERENCE ROOM 0.19 3. SLV PAN DELEGATES CONVENING IN CONFERENCE ROOM/SCU U.S. DELEGATES/ SCU TUNISIAN DELEGATES (3 SHOTS) 0.41 4. MV MEDIA 0.45 5.
  • Embargoed: 18th February 2000 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: MOSCOW, RUSSIA
  • Country: Russia
  • Reuters ID: LVA7J0AA3LL3MJUV9GZVJG2ZQNKB
  • Story Text: Israeli and Arab leaders have set dates for the
    resumption of long-delayed talks on Middle East economic
    cooperation, the environment, refugees and water after meeting
    at a U.S.-Russian sponsored gathering in Moscow.

    But the absence of Syria and Lebanon at the meeting and
    the killing of three Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon,
    some of the bloodiest violence there in months, dampened the
    mood of the conference.

    The United States and Russia convened the multilateral
    talks on Tuesday (February 1) hoping to build on renewed peace
    hopes created by the election in Israel of Prime Minister Ehud
    Barak, who has promised to swap land for peace with the Jewish
    state's Arab neighbours.

    At the start of the conference Putin, with one of the
    most prominent critics of Russia's Chechnya policy, U.S.

    Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, sitting nearby,
    defended the right of nations to act as they see fit on their
    own territory.

    "It is unacceptable to cancel such basic principles of
    international law as national sovereignty and territorial
    integrity under the slogan of so-called 'humanitarian
    intervention'," Putin told the delegates.

    He did not mention Chechnya by name but he was clearly
    referring to the West's strong criticism of Russia's military
    campaign against Moslem fighters in the breakaway republic.

    At the end of the conference Israeli Foreign Minister
    David Levy expressed regret at the absence of Syria and
    Lebanon but said multilateral negotiations would go on without
    them.

    Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr Moussa called on Israel to
    withdraw its troops from southern Lebanon, rejecting Israel's
    demand that Syria reign in Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerillas
    there.

    At a joint news conference with Russian Foreign Minister
    Igor Ivanov, U.S.Secretary of State Madeleine Albright urged
    Syria, Lebanon and Israel to show restraint after the killing
    of the three Israeli soldiers.

    "The unfortunate events in southern Lebanon are not at all
    helpful to the process and we call on Syria, Lebanon as well
    as Israel to show restraint so that these events do not in any
    way impede progress," Albright said.

    Israeli-Syrian peace talks, revived in Washington in
    December after a 45-month break, have reached what Albright
    called "kind of a pause" as the sides bicker over what to
    resolve first.Syria wants Israel to commit to a full
    withdrawal from the Golan Heights captured in the 1967 Middle
    East war.

    Israeli leaders have threatened to retaliate for the
    killing of the soldiers a zone Israel occupies in Lebanon.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register