Embargoes South Africa

The United States lifted a 35-year-old arms embargo against South Africa, Vice President Al Gore and South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said in a joint statement. "This will take effect immediately through the suspension of debarment of South African companies which had been prohibited from U.S. defense trade," the statement said.

The United States lifted a 35-year-old arms embargo against South Africa, Vice President Al Gore and South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said in a joint statement. "This will take effect immediately through the suspension of debarment of South African companies which had been prohibited from U.S. defense trade," the statement said.

Following the lead of the United States, Israel on Sunday renewed full trade with South Africa, a country with which it has nurtured military ties despite concern that these were a prop to the white-led Pretoria government. Last week, Washington itself lifted economic sanctions against South Africa on the grounds that the last legal bases of racial discrimination had been abolished. Switzerland followed, and Israel lifted its commercial embargo as well as a ban on cultural contacts.

Following the lead of the United States, Israel on Sunday renewed full trade with South Africa, a country with which it has nurtured military ties despite concern that these were a prop to the white-led Pretoria government. Last week, Washington itself lifted economic sanctions against South Africa on the grounds that the last legal bases of racial discrimination had been abolished. Switzerland followed, and Israel lifted its commercial embargo as well as a ban on cultural contacts.

While I have come to expect U.S. policy-makers to continuously make excuses for Fidel Castro, I am nevertheless stunned by former Ambassador Julian Nava's shortsighted perspective on the U.S. trade embargo (Commentary, June 22). With the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, a new embargo has finally emerged, absent the critical $5 billion in subsidies provided by the Soviet Union. It is absurd to measure the true effects of the U.S. trade embargo while Soviet aid was subsidizing the entire Cuban economy.

Dozens of political leaders and celebrities, including Jesse Jackson and actor Paul Newman, led several hundred demonstrators on a symbolic funeral procession to the State Department today, protesting South Africa's apartheid system. The demonstrators, estimated at 5,500 by district police, carried 50 black cardboard coffins symbolizing South Africans killed in violence there since the government imposed a state of emergency 23 days ago.