Shamir Meets with Ivory Coast F.m.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir met with Ivory Coast Foreign Minister Simeon Ake on Wednesday and asked him to intervene with other African countries to recognize Israel. It was the first meeting between the two Foreign Ministers since both countries formally resumed diplomatic ties last week when Ivory Coast reopened its Embassy in Jerusalem.

Shamir told Ake that Israel is ready to increase aid to Ivory Coast. To date, Israel has provided only agricultural and medical assistance to that country. But Shamir’s spokesman, Avi Pazner, indicated that Israel is not willing to provide other types of assistance, presumably military aid.

Ivory Coast broke diplomatic relations with Israel after the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The two countries agreed to resume diplomatic relations at a meeting in Geneva last January between Premier Shimon Peres and President Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

Shamir arrived here Tuesday for one week of talks with Foreign Ministers and diplomats, including officials from Soviet bloc countries, and to address the United Nations General Assembly on September 30. His meetings this week concentrated on the debate in the General Assembly on the UN Interim Force in Lebanon and on terrorism.

The Israeli Foreign Minister met with Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti of Italy on Wednesday. The meeting focused on the issue of terrorism. Pazner said Shamir welcomed Italy’s tough stance against terrorism and invited Italy to cooperate with Israel in all aspects to fight against this scourge. Andreotti told Shamir that he feared the wave of terrorism in France would spread to Italy, Pazner said.

Andreotti, who is also the President of the 21-member Council of Europe and former two-time Prime Minister of Italy, said he believed his country took the correct steps to enforce strong measures against terrorism, Pazner said. The Italian Foreign Minister also said the Italians had taken a lesson from the Israelis on how to deal with terrorists.