Egyptian Ambassador Ashraf Ghorbal and Israeli Ambassador Simcha Dinitz, who have been representing their countries to the United States for several years without communicating with each other, conversed like old friends and toasted each other at a private dinner last night.
“It’s a genuinely warm kind of evening,” an official of the American Broadcasting Company which arranged the dinner at the Madison Hotel told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He declined, however, to provide any quotations, noting that “it is our intention to have a private off the record function.”
The dinner, hosted by ABC-Television commentator Barbara Walters, was attended by about 50 persons, including Iranian Ambassador Ardeshir Zahedi, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, House Speaker Thomas O’Neill (D.Mass.), House Majority Leader James Wright (D. Tex.), Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D. Conn.), Hamilton Jordan, President Carter’s chief political advisor and Evan Dobell, the State Department’s chief protocol officer.
Zahedi was the only other ambassador present. Jordan and Dobell were the highest ranking officials from the White House and State Department. Reporters were barred from the dinner area.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
