U.S. Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who held talks here yesterday with Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, in response to a question, that he had raised the issue of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky just as he had promised to do when he met with Shcharansky’s wife, Avital, in Jerusalem two weeks ago.
Haig also told the JTA that he also discussed the issue of human rights in the Soviet Union and the emigration of Jews who wanted to leave the USSR but were prevented from doing so. The Secretary indicated that he raised the issue of emigration and the plight of the refuseniks in the context of reunification of families. In addition, Haig said that among the topics he and Gromyko discussed was the situation in the Middle East. He did not elaborate on this point.
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.
