Envoy Reports Soviet Overture to Israel

Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev is ready to restore diplomatic relations with Israel after a 23-year gap if Israel agrees to participate in an international peace conference, Italy’s foreign minister said Saturday.

Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has made it clear that Israel would only consider taking part in an international conference limited to the Persian Gulf crisis.

Foreign Minister Gianni de Michelis met with Gorbachev a day after the Soviet president met with Israel’s finance and science ministers. That meeting Friday was the first between a Soviet leader and Israeli Cabinet ministers since the nations broke diplomatic relations in 1967.

“President Gorbachev told me about the Soviet side’s readiness to recognize Israel immediately if it agrees to participate in an international conference that would determine rules and principles for security and cooperation in the region,” said De Michelis, whose country holds the presidency of the European Community.

On Sept. 4, the Soviets proposed an international conference to discuss the Persian Gulf, the Arab-Israeli dispute and the Lebanese civil war.

At the time, Soviet Foreign Minister Eduard A. Shevardnadze said the Soviet Union “might take a fresh look at the issue of Soviet-Israeli relations” if the Jewish state agreed to participate.

Israel has long opposed Soviet-backed ideas for an international conference over the Palestinian conflict, fearing such a wide forum would try to force Israel to concede territory to the Arabs.

Gorbachev met in the Kremlin on Friday with Finance Minister Yitzhak Modai and Science Minister Yuval Neeman, who were in Moscow discussing a trade deal. The meeting was not announced beforehand.

Neeman said Saturday in Jerusalem that Gorbachev’s warm reception of the Israeli ministers set the stage for establishing diplomatic relations.

“We are bringing home a new atmosphere,” he said in a radio interview, adding that Israeli-Soviet relations had been “raised to a new level that, I assume, is the last before complete relations.”

In another development, Italy agreed to give the Soviet Union $2.72 billion in credits Saturday, one day after Gorbachev warned that his nation is in danger of bankruptcy. De Michelis announced the loans after meetings at the Kremlin with Shevardnadze.

For decades the Soviet Union was considered a good international credit risk because the government always promptly paid its import bills. But because of a widening trade gap the Soviets have fallen behind on payments and are seeking trade credits.