Taba

Six years of dispute between Egypt and Israel over Taba, an enclave north of Aqaba Gulf, ended on Sept. 29. An international panel of judges declared its ruling on the dispute in favor of Egypt, settling the long-standing dispute over the right position of some of the demarcation line marks near Taba. Since the two countries had agreed to abide by the ruling long before it was known, it is expected that Israel will evacuate the disputed area and hand it back to Egypt. If there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is that the peace treaty signed on March 26, 1979, by both countries has survived a very serious test and has proved to be a very much needed step towards just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

A state security court convicted and sentenced to death three Islamic militants for their role in a suicide attack that killed 34 people at resorts in the Sinai town of Taba in 2004. The three were members of the militant group Tawhid and Jihad, which Egyptian security officials and prosecutors say carried out two other bombings that killed 87 people at Sinai resorts -- Dahab in April and Sharm el Sheik in July 2005.

Israel's Cabinet formally accepted an agreement with Egypt to submit to arbitration their four-year-old dispute over Taba, a 250-acre resort on the Gulf of Aqaba. A five-member international panel will begin deliberations next month in Geneva over the beach strip, which Israel retained after withdrawing from the rest of the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 under a landmark peace treaty with Egypt. Egypt also claims sovereignty over Taba.

Israel formally abandoned hope Sunday evening of finding any survivors of last week's massive bomb attack on a Red Sea resort in Taba, just across the border in Egypt, which left about three dozen people dead. After three days of searching the ruins of the seaside complex, Israeli soldiers and volunteer medics packed up their equipment and the scraper-type devices used to comb for human remains at the scenes of countless suicide bombings inside Israel.

President Hosni Mubarak pledged Saturday to make every effort to regain the Sinai desert enclave of Taba from Israel. "I promise you I will do my best to get Taba back," he told reporters during a tour of this Suez Canal city. Israel retained the 700-yard coastal strip when it handed back the Sinai peninsula to Egypt in 1982.

Israel and Egypt signed agreements handing sovereignty over the Taba beach strip to Egypt, ending the seven-year-old dispute over the 765-yard border strip on the Gulf of Aqaba. Under the agreements, Israel will withdraw March 15, Israel Television said. The live television broadcast showed Israeli and Egyptian officials signing four agreements, the last of which re-draws the Israeli-Egyptian border to include Taba inside Egypt.

A state security court convicted and sentenced to death three Islamic militants for their role in a suicide attack that killed 34 people at resorts in the Sinai town of Taba in 2004. The three were members of the militant group Tawhid and Jihad, which Egyptian security officials and prosecutors say carried out two other bombings that killed 87 people at Sinai resorts -- Dahab in April and Sharm el Sheik in July 2005.

A French national and a Swiss national have been chosen for the international team to arbitrate the Egyptian-Israeli Taba border dispute, the Foreign Ministry announced Tuesday. The names of the two arbiters, selected by Egypt and Israel, will not be announced until approvals are obtained from France and Switzerland and the arbiters are notified personally, Foreign Ministry sources said.

An international panel of arbitrators has decided to return to Egypt a tiny Red Sea beachfront known as Taba to settle a six-year-old border dispute with Israel, according to Israeli news reports. The newspapers Davar and Hadashot quoted senior Israeli officials as saying that the five panel members made their decision three weeks ago in Geneva.

Egyptian and Israeli officials began talks with two neutral legal experts Monday to fix procedures for arbitration of the dispute over the Sinai Peninsula beach strip called Taba. The preliminary talks were convened to name the third judge on a three-member arbitration panel and to set a date for the formal hearings. "These talks are very preliminary and do not represent the beginning of arbitration hearings," an Israeli spokesman said.

An Egyptian naval patrol shot and seriously wounded an Israeli man Saturday when he refused orders to stop his motorboat in Egyptian waters, Israeli police said. Egyptian and Israeli officials gave differing accounts of the incident. Foreign Ministry spokesman Allon Liel said Israel has asked Egypt for a "clarification" of the incident, which occurred in the Gulf of Aqaba, near Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat and Egypt's Taba beach. An Egyptian coast guard official told the state-run Middle East New Agency that the boat violated Egyptian territory and that Egypt had protested to Israel.

Egypt raised its flag over Taba today, gaining back from Israel the tiny strip of beach that was captured nearly 22 years ago and completing another article of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. Israel's Army Radio carried the noon transfer of sovereignty live as Egyptians made their way to a flagpole carrying an Egyptian flag and shouting in Arabic "God is great!"

Egypt has agreed to postpone implementation of an international ruling on the Taba border dispute with Israel until after Israel's general elections, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. An international arbitration panel awarded Egypt the 765-yard Red Sea resort last month. Israel held onto the strip after withdrawing from the rest of the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 under a U.S.-brokered peace treaty with Egypt.

Six years of dispute between Egypt and Israel over Taba, an enclave north of Aqaba Gulf, ended on Sept. 29. An international panel of judges declared its ruling on the dispute in favor of Egypt, settling the long-standing dispute over the right position of some of the demarcation line marks near Taba. Since the two countries had agreed to abide by the ruling long before it was known, it is expected that Israel will evacuate the disputed area and hand it back to Egypt. If there is a lesson to be learned from this, it is that the peace treaty signed on March 26, 1979, by both countries has survived a very serious test and has proved to be a very much needed step towards just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East.

An international arbitration panel on Thursday awarded most of a small patch of hotly disputed Sinai desert beachfront to Egypt, leaving Israel with slim hopes of retaining some of the territory, known as Taba. The arbitration panel, which met in Geneva, ruled that 15 boundary markers set by British colonial rulers constituted the true Israeli-Egyptian border, thus putting essentially all of the 700-yard-wide beach resort in Egyptian hands.

An international panel ruled today that Israel should hand over a tiny Red Sea beachfront to Egypt after a six-year border dispute between the two countries. However, the ruling left in question the last 200 yards running from the desert into the Red Sea, where Israel has built a luxury beach resort. The 4-1 verdict was issued in Geneva by a five-member international arbitration tribunal which said the resort of Taba, a 765-yard beach held by Israel, should be returned to Egypt.

Egypt's chief negotiator said Friday that agreement has been reached with Israel to deploy international peacekeepers in the disputed Sinai border area of Taba, the official Middle East News Agency reported. But it also quoted the negotiator, Nabil Araby, as saying disagreement remains on some details of guidelines for international arbitration to determine whether Taba, a 250-acre resort strip overlooking the Red Sea, belongs to Egypt or Israel.

Egypt has agreed to postpone implementation of an international ruling on the Taba border dispute with Israel until after Israel's general elections, the Foreign Ministry said Monday. An international arbitration panel awarded Egypt the 765-yard Red Sea resort last month. Israel held onto the strip after withdrawing from the rest of the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 under a U.S.-brokered peace treaty with Egypt.

An international panel of arbitrators has decided to return to Egypt a tiny Red Sea beachfront known as Taba to settle a six-year-old border dispute with Israel, according to Israeli news reports. The newspapers Davar and Hadashot quoted senior Israeli officials as saying that the five panel members made their decision three weeks ago in Geneva.