Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko warned critics of Soviet policies toward dissidents and Jews to keep their hands off Russia’s internal affairs. In a particularly sharp speech today to the General Assembly, he also warned that war could break out in the Middle East “at any moment” and reiterated his country’s support for the Arab states which “only want to retrieve what was seized from them by force.” Israeli Ambassador, Yosef Tekoah, replied to Gromyko at a press conference. (See separate story.)
Gromyko devoted a large portion of his speech to what he termed as “noisy propaganda campaigns” in the West and “blackmail,” a reference to efforts in the U.S. Congress to withhold most favored nation trade status from the Soviet Union unless it eases restrictions on dissidents and Jews and others wishing to emigrate.
“Sometimes things reach the point when attempts are made to arrogate the right to instruct others as to who should resolve matters of emigration from this or that country and how, and in what capacity and within what time limit and where, specifically,” the Soviet diplomat said. “In so doing, they do not scruple to heap praise on those who represent no one and who are–willingly or thoughtlessly–nothing more than blind instruments operated by the forces opposed to international detente.
“The Soviet Union,” Gromyko said, “vigorously rejects that approach and condemns it. We shall allow nobody to interfere in our internal affairs.” He warned: “It is no secret that there are some who would like to try to impose their own domestic practices upon others….Internal practices, internal laws, constitute the line on the threshold of each state at which others must stop.”
MIDEAST PROBLEM SOLUBLE…IF ISRAEL WITHDRAWS
On the Middle East, Gromyko said “The Soviet Union is convinced that the problem is soluble. There is a basis for this, and it is constituted in the well-known decisions of the Security Council…(but) the refusal of the aggressor to accept a settlement is becoming ever more challenging.”
Continuing, Gromyko declared that “everything must be done to ensure that both in Israel, and in those countries and circles which patronize its present policy it should be finally understood that a more sober approach is necessary and that they really take the path of solving the problem.” He said the situation could be settled on the basis of a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories, and respect for the rights of all states and peoples in the region, including the Palestine Arabs.
MOSCOW ANGERED OVER U.S. NEWS ACCOUNTS
U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger reportedly discussed the question of Soviet Jews and dissidents when he met with Gromyko at dinner last night.
Meanwhile, the State Department announced yesterday that protests were made there and in Moscow over the detention of an American news photographer, Roger Leddington, and the confiscation of film he took of the Jewish activist, Arkady Shpilberg, who was demonstrating outside Communist Party headquarters to protest the denial of an exit visa. The State Department indicated that the protests were not in writing but were delivered orally at a relatively low diplomatic level.
A report from Moscow today quoted the visiting head of the U.S. Information Agency, James Keogh, as saying that Soviet officials were dissatisfied with American news reporting on Soviet Internal matters. Keogh said that Soviet authorities accused American newsmen of over-emphasizing negative factors in their reports of the dissident issue and emigration practices.
Members of the “Friends of Arkady Shpilberg Committee” demonstrated in front of the UN today while Gromyko was addressing the General Assembly. The demonstration, sponsored by the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, included members of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the Washington Heights-Inwood Council on Soviet Jewry.
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.
