The Cabinet approved on Sunday morning a series of mega-projects envisioned by Shimon Peres and designed to improve regional cooperation. Among the approved ventures are a Dead Sea-Red Sea canal, and railway tracks to Jordan.



Peres, long the Minister of Regional Cooperation, has described his ideas as being intended to support diplomatic channels via economic anchors.



The largest of the projects is the digging of a canal from the Red Sea northward to the Dead Sea. Water from the south will flow naturally to Earth's lowest spot, the Dead Sea, thus preventing it from drying up. In addition, the surge of the water will be used to power electricity generators, which in turn will power desalination facilities for Jordan and the PA.



Another project will be the establishment of a joint Israeli-Jordanian international airport in Aqaba, adjacent to Eilat. Also planned are an agricultural industrial zone in Jericho, funded partially by Japan, and a high-employment Israeli-PA industrial zone near Jenin in the northern Shomron.