Israel officials are not planning any additional steps toward a meeting sought by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev following the rebuff from Soviet officials of the request earliest this week, informed sources said here today.
Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Jacob Malik, in turning down the request, said that statements by various Israel officials made a visit by Mr. Ben-Gurion to Moscow “untimely for the time being.”
The Israel Foreign Ministry continued to abstain from comment on the Soviet rejection but Israel newspapers commented ironically on Malik’s remark that the Soviet Union wanted friendly relations with all Middle East countries “without discrimination.”
The newspapers noted editorially that Moscow makes every possible effort to discriminate against Israel. The editorials also asserted that by rejecting the Prime Minister’s bid, the Soviets had lost the last vestige of any moral right to complain about Israel’s foreign policy.
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