Israel is prepared to enter into peace talks with any Arab state at any time and place, regardless of the internal regime of that state. Foreign Minister Golda Meir declared in Parliament today at the conclusion of the debate on the Foreign Ministry budget.
Replying to critics who said that Israel had failed to do enough to improve relations with the Soviet Union. Mrs. Meir insisted that Israel had not left unexplored the slightest hint of a possible improvement in relations with Moscow. She recalled that as early as 1948, when she was Israel’s Minister to Moscow, she had asked the Russians for commercial credit, technical experts and for an exchange of musicians and theatre troupes. Not a single one of her requests were fruitful, she added.
Mrs. Meir hit out at the “two great powers which brought the Sinai campaign to the United Nations in order to win Nasser’s friendship. ” She denied, as some deputies charged, that the Sinai campaign had been turned into a victory for Nasser.
Earlier. Menachem Beigin of the Herut scored the Israel Government’s “lack” of a foreign policy, its trend toward “neutralism” and unsuccessful campaign to obtain “one sided guarantees” from the United States. He recommended Israel seek mutually binding agreements and try to win one from France, where the people and government were “ready to welcome Israeli initiative. “
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
