Minister-Without-Portfolio Moshe Arens, a former Ambassador to the U.S., returned yesterday from an unpublicized visit to Washington where he met with Secretary of State George Shultz, reportedly to discuss ground rules for the interrogation by U.S. Department of Justice agents of Israeli diplomats and other officials allegedly involved in the Jonathan Pollard spy case.
Immediately on his return, Arens entered a closed-door meeting with Premier Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Pollard, a U.S. Navy civilian counterintelligence analyst, was arrested by the FBI on November 21 and charged with selling classified information to Israel.
Arens refused to discuss details of his trip to Washington, nor would aides to the Prime Minister. Official sources here indicated, however, that his mission was to establish the limits of the “interviews” the U.S. investigators will conduct here. The American team is due in Israel this week, possibly as early as tomorrow.
The Americans are expected to question two Israeli diplomats called home immediately after Pollard was arrested. They are Ilan Ravid, deputy science attache at the Embassy in Washington, and Yosef Yagur, science officer at the Israel Consulate in New York. Both are believed to have had contacts with Pollard.
In addition, the U.S. team is expected to question Raphael Eitan, former chief of Mossad, the Israeli secret service, who, according to unconfirmed media reports here, recruited and “handled” Pollard.
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