Soviet Foreign Minister Is Upbeat on Mideast Peace : Diplomacy: Bessmertnykh, on historic visit to Israel, says a resumption of relations with the Jewish state is ‘very close.’

Soviet Foreign Minister Alexander A. Bessmertnykh, in a historic visit to Israel, said Friday that the prospects for peace in the Middle East are “quite substantial” and indicated that Moscow would not attempt to pressure Israel by limiting the emigration of Soviet Jews.

In the first visit by a senior Soviet official since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948, Bessmertnykh held off on a pledge for immediate resumption of diplomatic relations with Israel, a move the Israelis have said must precede any direct Soviet sponsorship of a Middle East peace conference.

But Bessmertnykh said the two countries are “very close” to repairing the ties Moscow severed as a result of the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said Israel will neither rule out Soviet participation in the peace process nor abandon its attempt to extend peace talks to include all its Arab neighbors.

“We speak as representatives of free countries in search of that which unites them. If an Arab party is interested in peace, they will find Israel holding an outstretched hand,” Levy told reporters after Bessmertnykh’s meetings with Levy and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir.

As he arrived at Ben-Gurion Airport from Jordan, the Soviet envoy took note of the unprecedented nature of his visit by saying, “There is a feeling of great satisfaction that I am stepping on this ancient land of Israel.”

The six-hour visit came at what is viewed as a crossroads in the search to conclude what has been one of the world’s most intractable conflicts.

In a feverish week of diplomacy, Bessmertnykh has met with senior officials in Damascus, Syria; Amman, Jordan, and Tel Aviv. And after his Israeli visit, he flew Friday night to Cairo, where he will meet Sunday with Secretary of State James A. Baker III as Baker launches what may be his own final round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at bringing Palestinians, other Arabs and the Israelis to the peace table.

“It’s premature to say this thing is over,” said one diplomatic source, adding that Baker still hopes “to find out whether there’s any give” in Syria and Jordan about the terms and participants in a peace conference before a showdown with the Israelis on Wednesday.

All the parties so far have agreed to the concept of a conference. But they have differed sharply over whether it should be ongoing and international in scope, as Syria has insisted; or, as Israel had originally hoped, limited to a single meeting among regional players followed by direct, bilateral talks between Israel and individual Arab neighbors.

Israel has indicated it will consider some European participation but has held off on the idea of any U.N. involvement. There is strong disagreement on who would represent the Palestinians at such a conference. Israel continues to oppose any direct Palestine Liberation Organization involvement in favor of dealing with Palestinians from the occupied territories with no obvious PLO backing.

A separate meeting between Bessmertnykh and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat this week was canceled when Arafat said he had another engagement--typical of the low-key role the PLO has played in the negotiations so far.

The Soviets have until now supported the PLO’s right to represent Palestinians in the talks. However, diplomats said Baker, if unsuccessful at winning over Syria and the PLO to agreeable terms for a peace conference, may try to salvage a more limited set of talks, perhaps between Israel and a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation.

But the Israelis have made it clear they will not be in a mood to make dramatic concessions as long as other Arab countries remain hostile neighbors.

Certain to figure in next week’s diplomacy was the apparent shift on the part of Saudi Arabia, disclosed late Friday. According to a Saudi diplomatic source, the kingdom and five other moderate Arab nations have agreed to take part in a Mideast peace conference.

Such a shift would be significant: The Israelis were stung when the Saudi leaders--whose underpinning of the allied coalition against Iraq in the Persian Gulf War was hailed by Washington as a “window of opportunity” for peace in the Middle East--told Baker two weeks ago that they had elected not to participate directly in a peace conference.

Throughout the process, U.S. officials have sought to avoid dealing directly with the question of what would be discussed in any peace conference, because it is still painfully apparent that the two sides remain widely opposed on how to resolve the Palestinian issue.

Israel’s conservative Likud government strongly rejects any idea of trading land in the occupied territories for peace and leans toward some form of Palestinian autonomy or declaring Jordan the homeland of the Palestinians. Most Arabs continue to insist that Israel withdraw completely from areas occupied during the 1967 war: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights.

Bessmertnykh took a relatively tough tone in his earlier stop in Jordan, refusing to rule out a halt to Soviet Jewish emigration to Israel if Israel continues to build new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

But Israeli officials said the subject of settlements did not come up in Friday’s talks. Shamir’s spokesman, Avi Pazner, told reporters that the Soviet envoy pledged that his government would not seek to halt Jewish emigration.

“Minister Bessmertnykh said emphatically that the emigration of Soviet Jews to Israel will continue,” Pazner said, “and that this is the policy of the Soviet Union, to allow free emigration in the framework of the democratization of his country. And Mr. Shamir thanked Mr. Bessmertnykh very much for the free emigration of Soviet Jews which has been taking place in the last year and a half.”

In a news conference before his departure for Cairo, Bessmertnykh said the parties “have agreed that no country will try to put any pressure on any other participant in the process. This process can only bring good results if all of us are willing participants.”

Although Levy said the leaders had reached “some understandings” on the peace process, the talks were characterized primarily as an exchange of views that both sides have determined to continue.

The discussions “helped me to understand better the positions of Israel,” Bessmertnykh said. “We have agreed to continue the talks and to be in constant touch on the issues in every way possible.

“The chance to achieve peace in this region, to unfold a process of negotiations leading to a settlement, this chance is quite good, quite substantial,” he said.

“I have a hope,” he said, but he added: “That hope is not yet at the level of full confidence.”

Israel Radio reported that in his two-hour meeting with Levy, Bessmertnykh supported Washington’s push for a “two-track” approach that would involve Israeli negotiations with both the Palestinians and other Arab neighbors.

The Soviet envoy was also said to agree to a peace conference that would not impose any settlement on any of the parties.

Israeli officials said Shamir and Levy also raised concerns about upcoming Soviet arms sales to Arab countries, in particular the proposed sale of sophisticated Soviet-made T-72 tanks by Czechoslovakia to Syria and Syria’s recent attempt to acquire improved Scud-C missiles from North Korea.

Bessmertnykh countered that Arab countries are worried about Israel’s own military buildup, according to Israel Radio, and Levy reportedly extended an offer for Israel to sign a nonaggression pact with its neighbors in order to “create the atmosphere of trust needed to start negotiations.”

Some Soviet officials had indicated earlier in the week that Moscow might be prepared to resume full diplomatic relations with Israel, but some diplomats here said full restoration is not likely until this summer. Bessmertnykh was evasive on the timing.

“We have been able to note the fact that relations between the Soviet Union and Israel have been developing in a positive way,” he said.