Ambassador Yosef Tekoah said today that Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko’s remarks to the General. Assembly on the need for peace, detente and coexistence “have a hollow ring” in light of Soviet policies in the Middle East and its treatment of Jews seeking to emigrate.
The Israeli UN representative spoke in reply to questions by the press after Gromyko’s address. Tekoah observed that Gromyko “rightly emphasized that detente has been achieved everywhere by discussion and arduous negotiations, but on the Middle East suggested that Israel accept the Arab diktat, disregarding the Security Council’s call for the establishment of secure and recognized boundaries.”
Tekoah declared: “Only when the Soviet Union stops encouraging and actively assisting Arab belligerency and joins those who are calling for the initiation of a process of negotiation between Israel and the Arab states, will it have made a positive contribution to the issue of peace in the region.”
Commenting on Gromyko’s warning to critics to keep hands off Soviet internal affairs, the Israeli envoy said: “There is a striking disparity between Mr. Gromyko’s reference to respect for human rights and freedoms and his government’s conduct at a time when Soviet Jews continue to be harassed, their basic rights continue to be impaired by Soviet authorities and the Foreign Minister declares, in contradiction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that the right to leave a country is not a matter of concern to the United Nations and world public opinion.”
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