Peres Asks Romania to Help Israel Get Soviet, Chinese Ties

Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said Thursday that he asked President Nicolae Ceausescu to intervene with the Soviet Union and China to help Israel establish formal ties with with those countries.

Peres told reporters who accompanied him on his visit to Romania that his country would reconsider its objections to U.N. mediation in the Middle East if the Soviets and Chinese eased their hostility toward the Jewish state.

Romania is the only Soviet Bloc nation that did not sever diplomatic ties with Israel over the 1967 Middle East War. China has never officially recognized Israel.

Peres met twice with Ceausescu on Thursday for talks focusing on how to get Arab-Israeli peace talks started. He said Ceausescu proposed that U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar “try to bring the parties together” or mediate between them. The idea was raised as an alternative to the Soviet-proposed international conference on the Mideast, which Israel and the United States have rejected.

Speaking to reporters at the home of the Israeli ambassador, Peres said that he could not turn directly to the United Nations because Israel has no diplomatic relations with two of the permanent members of the Security council, the Soviet Union and China.

“I suggested to (Ceausescu) that he make an effort to at least improve (Israel’s) relations with China and the Soviet Union,” he said, adding that he believes that Ceausescu will try.