Palestine Recognized by Soviets : Moscow Will Push for Middle East Peace Conference

The Soviet Union on Friday formally recognized the newly proclaimed Palestinian state, saying that the move by the Palestine National Council will help lay the foundation for the peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Alexander A. Bessmertnykh, a first deputy foreign minister, said that the Soviet Union interpreted the announcement by the Palestine National Council in Algiers earlier this week as full Palestinian recognition of Israel and the acceptance of all past U.N. Security Council resolutions on a peace settlement in the Middle East.

Moscow intends now, Bessmertnykh said, to push for an international conference on the Middle East, and this would become a major focus of Soviet diplomacy, particularly President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s forthcoming speech at the United Nations and his meetings with the leaders of Britain, France and the United States.

Opportunities Emerging

“Opportunities are emerging that should not be missed,” Bessmertnykh said. “The Soviet Union calls on all interested states not to miss this chance and to begin practical preparations for a Middle East conference. . . . We believe that the decision of the Palestine National Council has cleared the way for such a conference.”

The council is the Palestine Liberation Organization’s so-called parliament in exile.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Boris Savastianov said no exchange of diplomats is planned soon. “That requires additional work,” he said, adding that he could not speculate on when that might occur.

A total of 29 other nations, most of them Arab and Muslim, have extended recognition to the Palestinian state.

Pursuing Gradual Thaw

The announcement came as the Soviet Union was pursuing a gradual thaw in its ties with Israel. Moscow broke relations with Jerusalem in 1967 after Israel captured Arab lands in that year’s Middle East war. But under Gorbachev’s leadership, Moscow and Jerusalem have exchanged low-level delegations, and the Soviet Union has loosened some restrictions on Jewish emigration.

The Soviets have supported the PLO and called for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied lands, and the PLO has maintained an office in Moscow since 1976.

Israeli leaders withheld detailed comment on the Soviet announcement for the time being, but Foreign Ministry spokesman Alon Liel said he is “not 100% sure” that the Kremlin move amounted to full diplomatic recognition.

The Soviet Foreign Ministry announcement was described by senior Western and Arab diplomats here as particularly significant, demonstrating Moscow’s readiness to play a more forceful role in the Middle East. The Soviet Union has already adopted a more flexible approach to Israel, taken a more guarded attitude toward its longtime clients in the region, in some cases cutting back arms sales, and broadened its relations to include moderate as well as radical Arab states.

“The Soviets wanted this move by the Palestinians very badly,” an experienced Arab ambassador here commented. “Moscow sees an international conference as the only way forward in the Middle East, and getting the Palestinians at the negotiating table on terms others, notably the United States, can accept has been of prime importance. They think they have that now, and although they are probably over-optimistic, they are really going to push.”

In its statement read by Bessmertnykh to a special press conference, the Soviet Foreign Ministry said that Moscow envisions a peace settlement emerging from such a conference through which “the people of Palestine will at last gain a homeland, the people of Israel will gain reliable security and the entire international community will remove one of the most dangerous sources of tension.”

Although U.S. and Soviet officials have been discussing conditions for an international conference on the Middle East for perhaps a year, right-wing gains in the Israeli elections earlier this month were seen as delaying, if not blocking, further moves.

Israel, however, has firmly rejected the Palestinian proclamation and, under a government led by the right-wing Likud Party--the most likely scenario since parliamentary elections earlier this month--Israel would not participate in an international conference on the Middle East. The United States said that the Palestine National Council had not gone far enough, though it remains willing in principle to participate in an international conference under certain conditions.

In formal terms, the Soviet Union said in the Foreign Ministry statement that it was recognizing “the proclamation of the Palestinian state, being guided by the realization that a comprehensive settlement (in the Middle East) will lead also to the practical completion of the historic process of creating this state.”

But Bessmertnykh, elaborating on the statement, made clear that “the essence of the statement” is full Soviet recognition of the Palestinian state as proclaimed on Tuesday by the Palestine National Council at its special meeting in Algiers.

“This is a very serious step taken by the Palestinian leadership,” he added, “and it reconfirms it as a serious partner in such (peace) negotiations. . . . This is a reasonable, carefully thought-out approach, and it creates opportunities for negotiations.”

The Palestine National Council, Bessmertnykh said, had “clearly stated their recognition” of not only the 1947 U.N. General Assembly resolution calling for the establishment of two states, one Jewish and the other Palestinian Arab, but also of two later Security Council resolutions that have become the basis for peace negotiations in the region.

“In doing this, they clearly recognized Israel, and that has not been clear in the past,” Bessmertnykh said.

He also stressed the importance of the Palestine National Council’s resolution rejecting terrorism.

“These decisions, as a package, are a major contribution to the process of fair political settlement in the Middle East,” the Foreign Ministry said in its statement. “As a result, a situation is taking shape where all the sides directly involved in the conflict recognize that the path to peace and to peaceful coexistence between the Arabs and Israel lies through talks on the basis of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and that a Jewish and an Arab state have equal rights to existence in Palestine.”

Although delayed several days by diplomatic consultations, Soviet recognition of the Palestinian state was expected because Moscow had been pressing not only the PLO’s mainstream Fatah faction but also more radical factions, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, for such a move as a way to break the prolonged stalemate in the Middle East.

In an April meeting here with Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, Gorbachev bluntly told him that “recognition of the state of Israel (and) consideration of security interests . . . is a necessary element for the establishment of peace and good-neighborliness in the region based on principles of international law.”

Times staff writer Daniel Williams contributed to this article from Jerusalem.