- JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The
United States has not attached any conditions
- so far in considering Israel's request for some $12 billion
in aid and
- loan guarantees, the Globes business daily quoted an
Israeli official
- as saying Tuesday.
-
- Last week, media reports said the United States would
deduct from the
- loan money any funds Israel spent in areas it occupied
in the 1967
- Middle East war, including the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
-
- Israeli and White House officials met Monday in Washington,
where the
- Israeli team requested $4 billion in direct aid and $8
billion in loan
- guarantees to help Israel cope with a two-year-old recession,
Globes
- said on its Internet site.
-
- "I am unaware of any U.S. demands (on Israel)...as
a condition for
- granting loan guarantees," Globes quoted Finance
Ministry
- Director-General Ohad Marani as saying.
-
- But he said the United States still had time to attach
conditions in
- subsequent meetings.
-
- "If the Americans intend to raise these issues,
they can do so in
- follow-on talks," he said. "The negotiations
with the U.S. have opened
- well. We have no reason not to be optimistic."
-
- When Israel received $10 billion in loan guarantees in
the early 1990s
- as it sought to settle one million immigrants from the
former Soviet
- Union, then-President George Bush imposed restrictions
on settlement
- funding.
-
- Israel has established 145 settlements in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip
- on land Palestinians want for a state of their own. The
international
- community regards the settlements as illegal. Israel
disputes this.
-
- ISRAEL WANTS MONEY FAST
-
- Israel, battered by the global economic slowdown and
two-year-old
- Palestinian uprising, has asked Washington to expedite
its request for
- the loan guarantees.
-
- Israel, which has never defaulted on its loans, would
find it easier to
- raise funds with U.S. backing.
-
- "Approval of the U.S. loan guarantees is likely
to be faster than
- usual, thanks to the administration's great understanding
of Israel's
- economic distress caused by the security situation and
war against
- terrorism," Globes quoted Dov Weissglass, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon's
- chief of staff, who is leading the talks, as saying.
-
- Globes cited sources in Washington as saying there would
be no formal
- response to the aid request from the U.S. administration
before April.
-
- Israel is already the top recipient of U.S. foreign aid,
receiving
- close to $3 billion in mostly military assistance each
year. A new aid
- package would come on top of existing U.S. commitments.
|
