November 18, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 22, 1424

PARIS, Nov 17: Israeli finance minister Benyamin Netanyahu has come to Paris to present his project for a railway network through Israel that would allow the Red Sea to be linked to the Mediterranean, according to an interview in today’s issue of Le Figaro Entreprises, a weekly financial magazine.

His objective is to interest the French financial and business community in investing more heavily in Israel’s future

Mr Netanyahu said that he wanted in particular to find financing in Europe, and notably in France, for the infrastructural development that such a vast railway project necessitates, which would include railways, hotels, and commercial buildings.

“I want to compete with the Suez canal,” he affirmed to his interviewer, and says that he would do this by constructing a rail link between the Mediterranean Port of Ashdod, to the west of Al Quds, and Eilat situated in the south on the Gulf of Aqaba. Netanyahu added, “because the immense ships that come from Asia full of manufactured goods which are headed for the Western markets in Europe or the United States, are now obliged to pass by the Suez.”

“Tomorrow, they’ll have an alternative, they’ll be able to pass by way of Eilat, or by Aqaba, in Jordan, if the Jordanian authorities accept to take part in the project.”