Israelis, Soviets to Open Talks Aug. 17 on Consular Ties

The Soviet Union announced Monday that talks with Israel aimed at restoring consular relations between the two countries will open Aug. 17 in Helsinki.

Gennady I. Gerasimov, the Foreign Ministry spokesman who made the announcement, said the talks will not result in restoration of full diplomatic relations. The Soviet Union and other Communist governments broke diplomatic relations with Israel after the 1967 Middle East War.

But Gerasimov said the talks could lead to a consular agreement that would permit the two governments to deal with each other directly on such matters as entry and exit visas and property rights. The Netherlands has handled such matters for Israel since the diplomatic break, while Finland handled Soviet interests in Israel.

Western diplomats said that a consular agreement could be the first step toward resumption of diplomatic ties.

Gerasimov said the Helsinki talks will take up only consular affairs and none of the political issues that separate Moscow and Tel Aviv. He said the Soviet position toward Israel has not changed.

“This is not ‘next year in Jerusalem,’ ” Gerasimov said, quoting a familiar Jewish toast.

He said that although the talks are to begin in Helsinki, they will then move on to Tel Aviv. In Israel, however, officials said they could not confirm this.

A Western diplomat here said the decision to open talks with Israel appears to be in keeping with Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s apparent intention to normalize relations with Moscow’s leading antagonists.

Only last week, he pointed out, Gorbachev extended an olive branch to China by offering to reduce the level of Soviet forces on the Sino-Soviet border and to pull some troops from Mongolia.

The announcement of the Soviet-Israeli talks was not carried on Soviet television, nor did it appear in the Russian-language report of Tass, the Soviet news agency.