The World - News from Sept. 19, 1989

Austria indicated it will downgrade diplomatic relations with Israel because the Jewish state refuses to send an ambassador to Vienna as long as Kurt Waldheim is president, according to the Foreign Ministry. A ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency that Austria’s current ambassador to Israel has been reassigned to Stockholm and that no replacement will be named. Israel’s ambassador to Vienna retired in 1986 after Waldheim’s election as president amid allegations that he was involved in war crimes while serving in the German army in World War II. The ministry spokesman insisted that a formal decision has not been made but added: “We have decided to cope with the principle of reciprocity.”