West German Chancellor Kurt Georg Kiesinger warned today that “any war in the Middle East carries in itself the danger of becoming a world war” and said that whether it did or not depended “on that old riddle, will the Soviet Union run the risk or will Moscow refrain from action?” He added that “Russia has always left the way open to pull back when a general war seemed imminent.”
In an exclusive interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s West Germany correspondent Alfred Wolfmann, the Chancellor said he had “no doubt that the smouldering Middle East crisis should be viewed in the context of what happened in Czechoslovakia and of the new Soviet foreign policy generally,” In reply to a question about the Soviet naval build-up in the Mediterranean, the Chancellor said it was impossible to know what the Russians had in mind there, “but it is clear that their relationship with Yugoslavia has changed.” Chancellor Kiesinger emphasized that any normalization of relations between West Germany and any Arab state would not be at the expense of Israel. He said it was “premature for Germany to offer herself as a mediator between Israel and the Arab states, but we would not miss a chance to mediate if it offered itself to us – that would be a mission we would glady accept.”
Dr. Kiesinger said relations between West Germany and Israel “have been undergoing a welcome revolution.” He attributed this to “the reaction of the German people to the Six-Day War. which was the turning point.” He said Germans “displayed a real sense of participation. It was an emotion that erupted suddenly.” Dr. Kiesinger replied to a question about his meeting with former Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion at the funeral of the late Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, lauding Mr. Ben-Gurion as “one of the most remarkable personalities of our time” and saying that “in the craving for world peace, the Israeli and (President) de Gaulle show similar insight.”
Dr. Kiesinger said, with reference to the European Common Market, that on numerous occasions he had instructed the West German representative to support Israel’s application for association, “with persistence, if needed.” Referring to the reputedly neo-Nazi National Democratic Party (NPD), he said the best way to get rid of it was by democratic means in an election.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
