By Aaron Sheldrick and Taku Kato
July 3 (Bloomberg) -- Japan, Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian Authority agreed to start work on an industrial and agricultural park in the West Bank as early as next year, as part of a ``Corridor for Peace and Prosperity.''
A feasibility study for the park in Jericho, near the border with Jordan in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, will be finished by November allowing for the start of construction, a statement from ministers from the four parties said.
The project area, a 500-kilometer (310-mile) corridor from the Gulf of Aqaba in the south of Israel and Jordan to the Sea of Galilee in the north, is envisaged to include an airport near Aqaba, the agricultural industrial park and a canal from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. Japan earlier pledged $100 million to develop agriculture in the West Bank.
``Mindful of the urgent need to improve daily lives of the Palestinian people and to advance the peace process, the parties underscored the importance of this initiative,'' said the statement, issued after a meeting in Tokyo.
The park's design has been agreed and a site identified, while the Palestinian Authority has committed to procuring what's called Area A of the project in Jericho.
Japanese Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura, Palestinian Authority Planning Minister Samir Abdullah, Israeli Minister of Environment Protection Gideon Ezra and Jordanian Foreign Minister Salah al-Bashir were at the meeting in Tokyo.
Linking Seas
Israeli President Shimon Peres in September 2006 suggested the idea, which builds on earlier concepts of linking the shrinking Dead Sea with the Red Sea. The Israeli Cabinet approved the corridor concept in March last year, prioritizing it as a national project.
Komura called on Israel and the Palestinians to exercise restraint and implement the Road Map for Peace initiative, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement. He also called on Israel to freeze expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and to try to ease security restrictions.
Israeli checkpoints, roadblocks and the separation barrier the Jewish state is building impede economic development, according to Christian Aid, and may make the corridor project difficult to implement.
``Obstacles in the West Bank have created isolated enclaves that sever economic ties, separate communities and deny Palestinians access to some 50 percent of the land,'' Christian Aid said in a report in July last year.
To contact the reporter on this story: Aaron Sheldrick in Tokyo at asheldrick@bloomberg.net; Taku Kato in Tokyo at Tkato6@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 2, 2008 22:58 EDT
