A Japan-backed agreement to promote economic cooperation and development in the Middle East must run parallel to concrete steps to stem violence there and revive the stalled peace process, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Thursday.
Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan and Japan agreed on Wednesday to a plan to build an agro-industrial park in the West Bank during a confidence-building conference hosted by Tokyo, which is trying to play the role as mediator in the region.
But senior officials attending the conference said Thursday that economic cooperation would be impossible without progress in the political arena.
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