An official Egyptian source said the return of the Egyptian trade delegation from Tel Aviv was a strong message to Israel. The source pointed out that Egypt was indignant at Israel bogging down the efforts to reach a truce and linking the opening of the border crossings to the release of Hamas-detained Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. However, speaking to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the source denied any diplomatic crisis between Egypt and Israel. Egypt is indignant at Israel's attempt to foil Egypt's efforts to reach a truce. The return of the delegation is a new message from Egypt to the next Israeli government, the source said. The source added the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zones) agreement faced many real obstacles and ascribed this to the fact that Israel companies had not provided enough information on their activities and that some points needed to be further clarified. Dr. Ali Aouni, chairman of the QIZ Unit, and Trade Minister Advisor Sayed el-Bous, who took part in the meeting with the Israeli officials on the QIZ agreement, refused to comment on the reason for the postponement of the talks with the Israelis and for the sudden return from Tel Aviv of the Egyptian delegation which was taking part in the meetings. Basem Sultan, member of the QIZ Council, said that the QIZ was still very important for Egypt's clothes exports and that it could not be linked to any political dispute. He also added that clothes exports had increased by 3.2% (up to $780 million) last year in spite of the global economic crisis. Sultan added that businessmen were not allowed to attend the Israeli-Egyptian joint meetings, which are held periodically every three months in Cairo and Tel Aviv alternately. He also said that such meetings could be attended only by governmental representatives, namely Dr. Aouni and Mr. el-Bous. He pointed out that, if Egypt wanted to increase its exports - especially ready-made clothes - this year, the Central Bank of Egypt had to agree on reducing the value of the Egyptian pound [LE] versus the US dollar. He said this reduction would contribute to cutting production cost, which is currently high because of the rising value of the LE versus the dollar. He expected the volume and value of exports to slide if the Central Bank did not agree on reducing the LE value. Contrasting justifications had been given to the return of the Egyptian trade delegation from Tel Aviv. The Egyptian ministries of trade and foreign affairs had said this was officially due to technical reasons. For its part, Israeli Haaretz newspaper had said it was Egypt's reaction to the decision of the Israeli mini-security government to accept the truce agreement with Hamas and to open the border crossings in the Gaza Strip only if Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit were released.
