The State Department had no reaction Monday to a report that Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has urged Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat to recognize Israel’s right to exist.
Gorbachev made the request during a meeting in Moscow with Arafat Saturday, according to a report Sunday in the Communist Party newspaper Pravda.
Pravda quoted Gorbachev as saying: “The Palestinians are a people with a difficult fate. But they receive broad international support, and this is the guarantee for resolving the main question for the Palestinians–self-determination.
“In the same way, recognition of the State of Israel, consideration of its security interests, the solution of this question is a necessary element in the establishment of peace and good-neighborliness in the region based on principles of international law.”
In addition, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze was quoted by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, as saying at a dinner Saturday that “the Palestinian people, which is one of the main parties to the Middle East conflict, must be ensured to the right to self-determination in the same measure as it was ensured to the people of Israel.”
Gorbachev’s remarks, much more conciliatory on Israel than in the past, came as Secretary of State George Shultz prepared to go to Moscow next week for meetings with Shevardnadze.
The Mideast is expected to be on their agenda as it will be when President Reagan goes to Moscow for his fourth summit meeting with Gorbachev from May 29 to June 2.
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.
