Foreign Ministry Official to Visit African Nations to Evaluate Their Attitudes Toward Israel

The Israeli Foreign Ministry is engaged in a far-reaching reappraisal of Israel’s relations with the African states in view of the emergence of an apparently powerful Libyan influence on several African governments. It was learned from reliable sources today that senior Ministry officials will soon visit a number of African countries to evaluate their attitude toward Israeli aid projects and policies in general.

These moves were prompted by the sudden and apparently wholly unexpected developments in Uganda, a hitherto friendly nation which recently ordered the Israeli military and diplomatic missions and Israeli civilian employes out of that country and is threatening to sever diplomatic relations. Israel was forced to abandon projects and equipment representing an investment of millions of dollars. More serious was the diplomatic debacle of the Ugandan volte-face and that country’s sudden alignment with the Arab camp.

CHAD KOW TOWS ARAB LINE

Uganda’s move was blamed primarily on the influence of Libya which has taken the hardest anti-Israel line of all the Arab states and exerts considerable economic muscle owing to its vast oil wealth. The deterioration of Uganda’s relations with Israel dates from President Idi Amin’s visit two months ago to Libya when he issued an anti-Israel communique jointly with

More recently, Chad, a Saharan state with which Israel has had very good relations until now, has come out in support of the Arab line. Chad has a common border with Libya and officials here attribute the change to attempts to appease the Libyans who have reportedly been engaged in subversive activities designed to overthrow the Chad regime.