Tass, the official Soviet news agency, plans to open a bureau in Israel, the Government Press Office announced Sunday.
The planned opening is part of a reciprocal arrangement in which Israel Radio correspondents will be based in Moscow and Israel Television personnel will be allowed to operate in the Soviet capital on assignment as required.
The press office said Tass had applied months ago for credentials for its correspondents. The Foreign Ministry thought they should be issued even without corresponding Soviet credentials for Israel Broadcasting Authority representatives in Moscow.
But Yossi Olmert, director of the press of fice, demanded that Israeli radio and television correspondents be allowed equal access to Moscow before Soviet correspondents are posted here.
Olmert said such reciprocal arrangements exist between Israel and other Eastern European countries. It is not yet known whether the Tass bureau will be in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.
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