Soviet Foreign Minister Boris Pankin’s assertion here Friday that his country will restore full diplomatic relations with Israel before next month’s planned Middle East peace conference appears to remove one of the key issues obstructing the proposed peace talks, observers say.
Pankin’s confirmation of Soviet intentions, which was welcomed by Israel’s supporters, came after a mecting here with Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy. The two foreign ministers were in New York for the beginning weeks of the new U.N. General Assembly session.
The Soviet foreign minister confirmed that “there will be re-establishment of diplomatic ties in the very near future,” and said that it will occur “surely before the peace conference.”
The two foreign ministers emerged from their half-hour meeting pleased with the exchange.
“We had a productive and fruitful discussion,” Pankin said. “There are no obstacles to reestablishing relations, and no matters that remain outstanding.”
“We had a very good and friendly conversation,” Levy agreed. “The minister has been invited and promised to visit Israel,” he said.
Pankin also met Sunday afternoon with a delegation of World Jewish Congress officials, led by Edgar Bronfman, its president. They asked the Soviet foreign minister to press Syria to allow thousands of Jews living there to emigrate.
Pankin said he was unfamiliar with the plight of Syrian Jews but promised to look into it, said Elan Steinberg, WJC executive director.
‘MOST DEFINITIVE’ STATEMENT YET
The Soviet Union has indicated for some time that it plans to normalize relations with Israel in the near future. But Pankin’s announcement Friday is significant in that it is the first time a specific time frame has been set, said Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “This is the most definitive statement” so far from the Soviets, he said.
And like Pankin’s call at the United Nations early last week to repeal the 1975 General Assembly resolution branding Zionism as a form of racism, “it represents a change in Soviet policy,” Hoenlein said.
“There are many areas of potential cooperation” between the two nations, he said. “It’s the kind of enlightened policy we had hoped for, for a long time.”
The unambiguous reaffirmation of Soviet intentions to restore full diplomatic relations with Israel is one of “the most important remaining matters for resolution” before convening the Middle East peace conference, said Marvin Feuerwerger, a senior strategic fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a pro-Israel think-tank.
It “is very helpful in assuring us that we will be able to get the other issues resolved,” Feuerwerger said.
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