Israeli Ambassador Walter Eytan conferrer for an hour yesterday with Secretary General Herve Alphand, head of the French Foreign Ministry. It was understood M. Alphand did not raise the subject of Lebanon at the meeting, which dealt with Israel’s reply to the recent non-official French proposal to “normalize” French-Israeli relations. The French proposal was said to call on Israel to accept a return of its $50,000,000 payment and forego the 50 Mirage jets it had bought and which have been embargoed, and not to undermine French-Arab relations. In exchange, France would ease its attitude at the Four Power talks and reinstitute the De Gaulle “selective embargo” policy applied prior to Israel’s raid on the Beirut airport. Mr. Eytan was said to have told M. Alphand that despite its desire to “normalize” relations with Paris, Israel could not renounce her claims on the pre-paid Mirages. But the Israeli reportedly also said that position was not final and might be revised if circumstances warranted.
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.
