Newsmen who attended the press conference here last night at which Gov. Nelson Rockefeller of New York reportedly said an agreement was reached at the May Moscow summit for Soviet permission to allow 35,000 Jews to emigrate annually were in sharp disagreement today as to whether the Governor had made that statement.
According to one version, the Governor told some newsmen that President Nixon and Premier Kosygin had agreed, at the May meeting, on the desirability of allowing Soviet Jews to emigrate to Israel. However, a flurry of reports emerged that the Governor had said that President Nixon had reached an agreement with either Kosygin or Communist party chief Leonid Brezhnev on 35,000 Jews being allowed to leave annually. Both Haaretz and Maariv gave prominent treatment to the purported agreement which also was distributed by the international news services, including the Associated Press. The AP story appeared in the New York Times today.
(The Governor backed off from his purported specific figure on the number of Soviet Jews scheduled for immigration annually when he spoke at a press conference at LaGuardia airport on his return from Israel. He described the agreement at the Moscow summit that Soviet Jews should be allowed to leave as “more a meeting of minds than a signed agreement.” He said he had been “misquoted” in Jerusalem.)
The Jerusalem Post, which had a reporter at the Governor’s press conference, did not refer to the purported figure agreement in its coverage. The Jerusalem Post reporter said later he did not hear the Governor allude to any US-Soviet accord on the release of Soviet Jews. Two other foreign newsmen at the conference were questioned on whether Rockefeller made the statement. One said the Governor spoke about President Nixon and Premier Kosygin agreeing that Soviet Jews should be allowed to leave Russia but he said flatly he had heard nothing from the Governor about a precise figure agreement.
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