Soviets Approve Direct Air Traffic to Tel Aviv : Foreign relations: The decision will ease the way for thousands of emigrating Jews. The move could also be a prelude to full diplomatic relations.

In another step along the path to closer relations with Israel, the Soviet Union has reversed itself and decided to allow direct airline flights from Moscow to Tel Aviv beginning in a month, Israeli officials said Saturday.

The direct flights will ease the departure of thousands of potential immigrants to Israel who, since the Kremlin relaxed exit policies last fall, have had to travel to third countries en route here. Despite an air agreement signed last winter between the Soviet carrier Aeroflot and Israel’s airline, El Al, Moscow had balked at allowing direct traffic.

Arab complaints about the pace of Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel, plus Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s linking of immigration to Israel’s claim to the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, had made the Soviets reluctant to establish the air bridge.

But in recent weeks, two Israeli Cabinet ministers have visited Moscow. In addition, the Soviet Union has committed itself to upholding U.N. sanctions against Iraq for Baghdad’s invasion of Kuwait. The Soviet abandonment of Iraq, an avowed enemy of Israel, appeared to affirm the drift of Moscow toward the so-called moderate camp of Arab states that have good relations with the United States, Israel’s chief ally.

In any case, any outcry from the Arab world over establishment of the direct air link may now be muffled, given current international preoccupation with the Persian Gulf crisis.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Shamir called the Soviet decision “a very positive development in the direction of strengthening and intensifying the relations between Israel and the Soviet Union.”

The spokesman said he considers the decision a possible prelude to full diplomatic relations with Moscow. “The Soviets themselves have told us that after such a period of improved relations, it is very possible there will be diplomatic relations,” the spokesman said.

Moscow broke off ties with Israel after the 1967 Middle East War in which Jordan along with then-Soviet allies Egypt and Syria were defeated. Under the influence of President Mikhail S. Gorbachev’s “new thinking” in foreign policy, Moscow has gradually warmed to Israel in the past several years, permitting trade to grow and cultural and athletic exchanges to take place.

Soviet Finance Minister Valentin V. Pavlov notified Israel’s Transportation Minister Moshe Katsav on Friday of the decision to open a direct air route.

More than 100,000 Soviet Jews have moved to Israel this year. Israeli officials estimate that as many as 1 million will arrive within the next two years, driven by signs of anti-Semitism and nationalistic unrest in the Soviet Union.

The United States had been the first choice of the emigres until last year, when the Bush Administration set an annual limit of 50,000 Soviet Jews permitted to enter the United States.

Last spring, the Soviets told Israel that they would permit direct flights only after Israel gave assurances that new immigrants would not move into the West Bank and Gaza, where the Israelis have carried on a settlement program for more than 20 years. Israeli officials said that they could not prevent the immigrants from settling in the occupied territories, which are home to 1.7 million Palestinians. However, the government announced that no special housing programs would be undertaken to settle Soviet Jews in the occupied areas.