Reports that the West German Government contemplates the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel were formally denied here today following an announcement in Cairo by the Arab League that it plans to “deal” with the matter.
Meanwhile, it was learned here that the question of the Arab attitude toward Bonn Jerusalem ties is being discussed in Istanbul at a meeting of German diplomatic envoys accredited to various Middle Eastern states. The four-day parley opened yesterday under the chairmanship of Dr. Walter Hallstein, State Secretary in the Bonn Foreign Office, who reportedly is sounding out his mission chiefs in Arab League capitals on reaction to a Bonn trade mission in Tel Aviv or a consulate in Haifa.
The German mission chiefs, it is understood, have warned against full-fledged German diplomatic relations with Israel. The leading figure in pressing this view has been Dr. Walther Becker, currently Bonn’s Ambassador in Cairo, who has already informed the Arab League that there is no substance to reports of Bonn-Jerusalem diplomatic relations. Dr. Becker succeeded Dr. Guenther Pawelke as Ambassador here, reportedly after Nazi circles had complained of his friendliness toward Jewish circles.
A blunt warning that the establishment of West German diplomatic relations with Israel would be followed swiftly by retributive recognition by Cairo of the East German Communist Government was voiced by Egyptian Premier Gamal Abdel Nasser in an interview distributed here by the International News Service. Bonn recognition, Col. Nasser declared, would be interpreted as an “unfriendly act” toward the Arab nations and would “cause us to drop all restraint.”
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