Shevardnadze, Peres Confer on Emigration

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Wednesday that he left a rare meeting with the Soviet foreign minister with “hope in my heart” that more Jews will be permitted to leave the Soviet Union.

In the highest level Soviet-Israeli meeting in a year, Peres and Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze agreed to increase contacts but announced no resumption of diplomatic ties severed after the 1967 Middle East War.

Regarding Jewish emigration, the Israeli envoy, speaking in English, said he told Shevardnadze about “problems that were not dealt with the way we would like to do so.”

“Mr. Shevardnadze said, ‘We need a little bit of time to think over your approaches,’ ” according to Peres, who declined to elaborate.

Asked if emigration would increase as a result of the meeting, Peres responded in Hebrew: “I would say I don’t have a concrete answer in my pocket, but I have that hope in my heart.”

The two officials, who last met at the United Nations one year ago, spoke at the Soviet U.N. Mission. They are in New York to attend the 42nd session of the U.N. General Assembly.

Israeli officials have been pushing the Soviets to allow more direct travel of emigrating Jews to Israel. An Israeli source said Peres asked Shevardnadze to allow direct flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv and that the Soviet minister “did not reject the request out of hand.” Currently, emigrating Jews must travel through third countries.

Fewer than 1,000 Jews emigrated from the Soviet Union in 1986, but the figure has risen to more than 5,000 so far this year. Israel contends that about 400,000 of the Soviet Union’s 2.5 million Jews want to come to Israel.