PM Barak discusses is proposal for delayed implementation of Wye with PA chief negotiator Mahmud Abbas. Abbas says that Arafat would agree to delay the 2d stage of the FRD to 10/1, but wants full implementation of the agmt. completed by 11/99. (MM, WT 8/11; MEI 8/20)
State Dept. reports that both houses of Congress have refused to approve Wye aid, omitting the $1.2 b. for Israel, $400 m. for the PA, and $300 m. for Jordan fr. their drafts of the FY 2000 foreign aid bill. According to congressional staff mbrs., the money fell victim to the overall squeeze on foreign aid, pessimism that the Wye agmt. will be implemented. (WP 8/10; MM 8/11, 8/13)
As a goodwill gesture in advance of security talks with Turkey on 8/10, Iran releases 2 Turkish soldiers captured inside Iran on 7/22. (WP 8/10)