Foreign Minister Yigal Allon said last night that Israel opposes stronger Soviet involvement in Middle East negotiations because of the hostility of the Soviet Union to the Jewish State.
Speaking to the international conference of Australian, American and Canadian Professors for Peace in the Middle East at the Van Leer Institute here, Allon said that the Soviet Union attacks Israel daily with hostile propaganda and wants to “dictate results before negotiations.” He said the Soviet Union is arming the Arabs while it does not have any diplomatic relations with Israel.
Stressing that Israel will not beg the USSR to resume relations broken during the Six-Day War, Allon said a renewal of relations would be to the benefit to the USSR than to Israel. He explained that the United States has more influence in the Middle East because it is friendly to all parties in the conflict.
Allon said that real negotiations can not come under the co-chairmanship of the Geneva conference by the two superpowers but through direct talks in the Mideast by the parties involved.
He said he hoped the incoming Carter Administration will explain to the Arabs that peace must be negotiated and cannot be imposed. “Anything we are ready to compromise can be reached without outside pressure.” Allon declared. “But on anything we compromise, on, pressure won’t help.”
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