Soviets Drop Barriers to Israel Diplomatic Ties : Mideast: Participation in a regional peace conference had been a condition. Moscow cautions that full relations may take a while.

The Soviet Union, in a substantial policy shift, no longer ties the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel to Jerusalem’s participation in a Middle East peace conference, a Soviet Foreign Ministry spokesman acknowledged Saturday.

Vitaly I. Churkin, the ministry’s chief spokesman, said that the Soviet Union now attaches no conditions to full diplomatic relations with Israel but cautioned that “this does not mean it will happen tomorrow.”

Although Eduard A. Shevardnadze, the Soviet foreign minister, said at a press conference last week after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Washington that Moscow has “no preconditions,” Churkin’s comments made clear the significance of the policy shift here.

“We have no preconditions--none,” Churkin said. “Let me say it again: We have no preconditions for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel, but this process should mature, should evolve. . . .

“The situation must be right. Such an important act must be accompanied by a developing process, and Mr. Shevardnadze said so with Prime Minister Shamir.”

In the past, Soviet officials always linked the re-establishment of relations, broken by Moscow during the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, to Israel’s participation in an international conference on peace in the Middle East.

Israel has been adamant in its refusal to participate in such a conference, a position that remains unchanged. The Kremlin, however, has altered its stance gradually from one that barred restoration of full diplomatic ties with Jerusalem until the Arab-Israeli conflict is resolved to today’s willingness to proceed with no preconditions. In between, Moscow has variously said that it was willing to re-establish Israeli ties during such a conference, at the start of such a conference, and, until last week, on Israel’s agreement simply to take part in preparations for such a conference.

Churkin confirmed that Shevardnadze had found no new flexibility on Israel’s part in his conversation with Shamir last week.

“The Soviet retreat is virtually complete,” an Arab ambassador commented Saturday. “We could see it coming, but we are still disappointed.

“Israeli obstinacy--its very refusal to talk--is being rewarded. Why the Soviet Union has to beg in this way, we don’t understand. . . . Perhaps American pressure is the crucial factor.”

The move is certain to prove controversial, as the flurry of questions from Arab journalists to Churkin indicated. What had brought the change, why had the Soviet Union dropped its conditions for diplomatic relations, what had happened to the linkage that for the Arab world already represented the minimum amount of leverage the Soviet Union was willing to exercise on their behalf?

Churkin disputed whether there had ever been such Soviet “preconditions” and, quoting Shevardnadze’s comments in Washington and later to Soviet journalists on the way home, simply stressed that there was no further linkage between the conference, which Moscow still strongly supports, and its re-establishment of relations with Israel, now regarded as all but certain.

“Foreign Minister Shevardnadze believes that we should have relations with all countries, no matter what our differences, and that we should not sever relations with any country, whatever the circumstances,” Churkin said. “That does not mean we will re-establish relations with Israel tomorrow or the day after, but our position is clear. . . .

“With Israel, with South Africa, with some other countries, there are certain political histories in our relations that we cannot ignore. But that just means time and effort will be required to work things out.”

Sentiment has been growing for many months among Soviet specialists on the Middle East, however, for the resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel to make Moscow an equal partner with Washington for possible mediation in the region. Israel has continued to insist that Moscow cannot play such a role if the two nations do not have diplomatic relations.

Shevardnadze, apparently accepting their argument, told Soviet journalists last week after his meetings with U.S. and Israeli officials that the Soviet Union needs to be in a dialogue with all the parties in the Middle East conflict to play a full role in regional peace efforts.

Even without full diplomatic ties, relations between the two countries have progressively warmed over the last year and a half, with scores of delegations and exchanges rebuilding links severed for more than 20 years.