Egyptian President Sadat’s announced support of terrorist raids against Israel and his readiness to assist Lebanon against Israel have raised “serious questions” for Israel about Egypt’s intention to move toward “a new relationship of peace and understanding” with Israel, Yosef Tekoah, Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, said here yesterday.
Emerging from a one-hour meeting with UN Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, Tekoah told newsmen he had also expressed formally his surprise and dismay about Dr. Waldheim’s disclosure he had met with Palestinian representatives in Khartoum, in the Sudan. Tekoah listed the terrorists Waldheim met as Zuhayr Muhsin, commander of El-Saiqa in Lebanon, the group that called the Kiryat Shemona massacre “heroic” and took responsibility for many of the terrorist atrocities; Faruq al Qadumi, who represents El Fatah in the Palestine Liberation Organization; and Khalid al Fatum, chairman of the National Palestinian Council of PLO. Tekoah said Walheim told him the meetings with the terrorists was a “chance encounter” and that he was not aware of the identity of the terrorists he met.
Tekoah said he also called to Waldheim’s attention the plight of Syrian Jewry and “the increased harassment of Soviet Jews in recent days’ when many were arrested to avoid their staging protests during President Nixon’s visit to Moscow. Tekoah said he asked Waldheim to “continue” his “humanitarian interest” on behalf of Syrian and Soviet Jewries. Tekoah added that the “physical molestation” of the Jews in Syria continued and that the Jews there were “utterly defenseless.” (By Yitzhak Rabi)
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