French Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson pledged here this week that his country would actively help Israel in its efforts to re-establish diplomatic ties with Africa.
Cheysson, who himself has wide-ranging personal connections with African leaders, told Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir that some of the African states now aligned with the pro-Soviet camp have indicated that they would like to restore relations with Israel now that the pullback from Sinai is about to be completed.
Disclosing this yesterday, Israeli officials added that Cheysson had been “very optimistic” and said it “should not be difficult now” for Israel to renew its ties with Africa. He said many key figures in Africa recall “with tears in their eyes” the goodwill and efficacy of Israeli experts who ran cooperation programs in their countries before the rupture of relations in 1973.
The officials were sharply critical of the publicity that attended Defence Minister Ariel Sharon’s recent secret swing through a number of African countries. This publicity was “damaging” and was “a bad thing,” the officials said. They hoped that the desire of several African states to restore full ties with Israel would “overcome their fears which were caused or compounded by this publicity.”
The officials noted that Shamir met separately with six African Foreign Ministers during the UN General Assembly session this autumn but at their request he made sure that no word of the meetings leaked out.
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