Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, September 14, 1993 TAG: 9309140112
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JORDAN
Jordan and Israel are to announce today that they have agreed on a negotiating agenda for establishing secure and recognized borders. The accord reportedly also calls for cooperation on economics, trade, tourism and the environment.
If the accord leads to successful negotiations, the two nations eventually may agree on a formal peace treaty. Israel captured the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and has occupied it ever since. Jordan's King Hussein in July 1988 severed his country's legal and administrative links with the West Bank. Although technically still at war, the two countries have cooperated informally for years to keep their 400-mile long border quiet and to try to stop guerrilla infiltrations. A key issue that would have to be negotiated in a peace treaty: sharing of water from the Jordan River.
SYRIA
Syria is continuing negotiations with Israel for the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 war. A complication is the state of about 7,000 Jews who have settled in the Golan Heights since the war. They do not want to leave.
Israel has indicated it will consider returning the Golan, but only if Syria first agrees to seriously discuss a full peace, including trade and diplomatic relations. Syria counters that it cannot consider a full peace until Israel commits to full withdrawal.
LEBANON
Lebanon wants Israel to withdraw its troops from a buffer enclave along Lebanon's southern border which Israel calls its "security zone." Israel established the zone after occupying southern Lebanon in 1982. Israel asserts that the security zone is necessary to guard against guerrilla attacks by pro-Iranian Hezbollah Lebanese guerrillas and terrorists connected with radical Palestinian factions.
- Cox News Service
by CNB