Middle East peace hope as Suez Canal reopens

The Rhodesia Herald, 6 June 1975
THE Suez Canal reopened yesterday after eight years, and as Egypt’s President Anwar el-Sadat sailed along the waterway, there was growing optimism for future Middle East peace negotiations.

In Israel, the Prime Minister Mr Yitzhak Rabin, said prospects for a Middle East settlement were “extremely good”, and he did not believe there would be another deadlock in negotiations.

Mr Rabin who leaves for Washington next week to discuss peace moves with President Ford, told a Labour Party debate that all the “prophecies of doom” after the suspension of talks earlier this year, had been proved wrong.

President Sadat, steaming through the Canal on an Egyptian destroyer, hailed Israel’s decision to thin out its forces on the waterway’s east bank as a very important step, reports Iana-Reuter.

“I do not belittle this gesture. I consider it a very important act on the part of Israel,” he told reporters.

President Sadat noted that Middle East peace moves had come to a halt last March with the failure of the US Secretary of State Dr Henry Kissinger’s efforts to negotiate a new Israeli troops withdrawal on the Egyptian front.

“This gesture means we start the process again.

“Let us hope it is not simply a tactical move by Israel”, the President said.

Questioned on whether Egypt would permit Israeli non-strategic cargoes to pass through the Canal, Mr Sadat said: “The step Israel has taken this week was very encouraging, but the question of cargoes is not a problem. The real question is: Are we going to continue the peace process or not?”

LESSONS FOR TODAY

1975 was the second reopening of the Suez Canal, an important trade route especially for the oil rich Middle Eastern region, Europe and Africa.

Its closure means that oil prices are hiked, a situation that affects the import and export business cycle, and international trade patterns.

President Sadat was correct when he asked this open-ended question: “Are we going to continue the peace process or not?”

Peace in the Middle East has been elusive for decades. Apart from the counter-accusations among the protagonists, there is need for firm commitment on the two-state solution Israel and Palestine.

Various United States presidents have come and gone without resolving the Middle East crisis. The US has always been accused of being the devil in the detail that stalls the peace process in the region, since it pursues its interests oil, peace and security more than the Israeli-Palestinian   issue.

For making himself a catalyst to the peace process, President Sadat, eventually won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978, before his assassination in 1981.

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