Israel, Hungary OK Gradual Revival of Ties, Shamir Says

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir said Thursday that Israel and Hungary have agreed to gradually restore diplomatic ties after a 21-year break.

The accord was seen as the latest signal that the Soviet Bloc is softening its opposition to the Jewish state.

After talks with Premier Karoly Grosz in Budapest on Wednesday, Shamir said that Grosz was “convinced that we should reach a normalization of relations.”

“The question is only when (renewed ties) will come and the feeling is that it’s close,” Shamir told Israel Radio from the Hungarian capital.

The movement toward renewed ties comes as Israel agreed to begin assisting Hungary in the economic and industrial development fields, the radio said. Inflation in Hungary already has reached 18% this year, and the country has a foreign debt of $18 billion.

Hungary, along with all Soviet Bloc countries except Romania, severed ties with Israel after the 1967 Middle East War.

But ties with Eastern Bloc countries have improved in the last two years. Currently, a Soviet consular delegation is in Israel and an Israeli delegation is visiting Moscow.

Shamir, who left for home late Thursday after completing his private visit with Grosz, said no timetable for renewed links with Hungary has been set, but Israel Radio reported that the first step toward normalization would be an upgrading of Israel’s representation in Budapest.

He called for “close cultural and national ties between Hungarian and Israeli Jews” and added that Israel planned to send Hebrew teachers to the Communist country.

Israel and Hungary resumed low-level diplomatic ties last year and in March opened interest sections, the lowest form of diplomatic representation, in Budapest and Tel Aviv in March.