A new postponement of the hearing before the Moscow Chamber of Commerce arbitration tribunal on Israel’s suit for over $2, 000. 000 in damages resulting from Soviet unilateral breaching of an oil delivery agreement, has raised the question whether the Soviet Union is again reversing its tactics. Soviet oil companies refused to make oil deliveries immediately after the Sinai operation in the fall of 1956.
Yesterday, it was announced that one of the hearing commissioners, Ramzaytsev, was ill again. It was on the excuse of Mr. Ramzaytsev’s illness that the hearings were repeatedly postponed since last December. It was suspected that this was an attempt by Moscow to let the case drop from public view through a series of delays.
However, when the world trade press began to pay more attention to the case, rather than less, Mr. Ramzaytsev’s recovery was announced and the hearings resumed at a rapid pace, apparently in an attempt to close the matter. So rapid, in fact, that Israeli attorneys were forced to stall at one point to organize their final presentation. This last summing up was almost complete when the most recent postponement due to illness was announced. In the recent phases of the case, numerous Western correspondents have attended the arbitration tribunal sessions.
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