Israelis Fear Setback on Soviet Contacts : Peres Reportedly Dispatches a Hopeful Message to Gorbachev

The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday postponed a debate on relations with the Soviet Union amid concern that renewal of ties has been hampered by disclosure of clandestine contacts between the two countries.

Israel radio, meanwhile, reported that Prime Minister Shimon Peres is sending a message to Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev saying he hopes that their two countries can reach agreement on a wide range of subjects.

Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir had planned to report to the Cabinet on clandestine talks between the Israeli and Soviet ambassadors to France, but the Cabinet ministers decided to put off the discussion until a later date, a Cabinet spokesman said. He gave no reason.

Meeting in Paris

On Friday, the state radio said such a meeting took place last week in Paris, raising prospects of restored diplomatic ties in return for what the broadcast called Israeli flexibility on the future of the occupied Golan Heights.

Israeli officials voiced concern Sunday that the report could be harmful. Successive Israeli governments have striven to renew the relationship severed by Moscow in the 1967 Middle East War.

Communications Minister Amnon Rubinstein said: “If the government can’t conduct such talks discreetly, it’s extremely dangerous. This phenomenon must be stopped.”

Confirming that the ambassadors met, a Foreign Ministry official said, “Contacts between Israeli and Soviet diplomats have been conducted for a long time in many capitals.” Moscow--while not denying that a meeting took place--dismissed the report of a possible deal as groundless.

Under the reported deal, Israel would stop the spreading of what Moscow views as anti-Soviet propaganda in the United States and Europe and negotiate the return to Syria of at least part of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 war and formally annexed in 1981.

Syria is the Soviet Union’s main ally in the Middle East.

On the reported Peres-Gorbachev contact, Israel radio said the Israeli prime minister entrusted the oral message to Edgar Bronfman, president of the World Jewish Congress, who is due to visit Moscow next month.

Furious Over Leak

Government officials said earlier that Israel and the Soviet Union were trying to arrange a meeting of their foreign ministers during the U.N. General Assembly session in October. Israeli officials said Sunday that such discussions are continuing despite the leak.

Soviet journalist Viktor Louis, who is regarded as close to the Kremlin, was quoted Sunday in the Israeli daily paper Yediot Aharonot as saying Soviet authorities are furious over the leak.

“Before you open your mouth, it’s been leaked” by Israel, Louis was quoted as saying.

Israel radio, meanwhile, said U.S. Charge d’Affaires Robert Flaten reassured Peres on Sunday that Washington will have no contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization until the PLO agrees to recognize Israel’s existence.

Flaten also gave Peres “clarifications” from Secretary of State George P. Shultz on the U.S. position regarding talks with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation trying to negotiate a Mideast peace plan, the radio said.

Palestinian sources in Cairo said Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy is expected to meet the delegation in Amman, Jordan, on Friday. The State Department denied the report.

Israeli officials have expressed concerns that PLO members or supporters may be included in the delegation. Peres last week dismissed as “unacceptable” a list of proposed Palestinian delegates, approved by Jordan and the PLO and given to the United States.

The radio report quoted Flaten as telling Peres that Washington is still studying the list and “will start the discussions only if it is assured that the talks would lead to direct (Arab) negotiations with Israel.”

The United States also assured Israel that it will have no contact with the PLO unless it recognizes Israel, the broadcast said.