France has agreed to guarantee $500 million in loans to Israel to build 10,000 housing units for Soviet immigrants in Beersheba in the Negev, Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy announced here.
The French offer, which surpasses the $400 million immigrant housing loan guarantee Israel received from the United States in April, was made by French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas at his meeting with Levy on Tuesday night.
It is the largest France has ever extended to the Jewish state and apparently will underwrite housing contracts with French construction firms. The successful bidders will be able to offer better terms because their payment will be guaranteed by the French government.
Levy made no mention of conditions attached to the offer. It was presumed here that the guaranteed loans must be used only for housing inside Israel proper.
The U.S. stipulated that its guarantee must not finance construction in the Israeli-administered territories.
Levy described his hour-long talk with Dumas as “good and open-hearted.” Apparently they avoided issues over which France and Israel have strong disagreements.
Dumas presumably irked Israel when he met recently with Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasir Arafat. The meeting flew in the face of a concerted decision by nations arrayed against Iraq during the Persian Gulf War to shun the PLO leader, who supported Iraq’s Saddam Hussein.
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