The resumption of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Soviet Union “will come about eventually, because it is in the nature of things,” Ambassador Arye Levin, Israel’s deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, said here.
“We are open to reestablishing diplomatic ties,” Levin said, “but our position is: The Soviet Union broke those ties. It is up to the Soviet Union to approach us with a view to reestablishment.” The possibility of renewing ties, ruptured by the Soviet Union at the start of the 1967 Six-Day War, was leaked last week.
In fact, Levin said that Israel and the Soviets have been recently meeting on “the highest levels,” including their foreign ministers. Levin said that he also had participated in such meetings at the UN.
“The Soviets are a legitimate part and parcel of the political scene in the Middle East,” Levin explained. “They know that if they are not maintaining an official relationship, they are out of the picture.”
Levin reiterated Israel’s opposition to an international conference on the Middle East that would include the Soviets. Levin acknowledged that an Israeli demand to link reestablishment of relations with relaxed emigration for Soviet Jews “is not to be excluded.”
Levin was the guest speaker last week at the Wisconsin State of Israel Bonds National Tribute Dinner at the Pfister Hotel. Francis Ferguson, retired chairman of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., became the first non-Jew from Wisconsin to receive the Israel Peace Medal.
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