Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy offered Friday to send humanitarian relief to Iran to help search for trapped survivors of that country's killer earthquake. ``Israel is very sorry for the grave natural disaster in Iran and is prepared to give the Iranians immediate aid as it has done for various other nations,'' said Eliza Goren, Levy's spokeswoman. Iran reportedly said humanitarian aid would be welcomed from all nations except South Africa and Israel. Goren said Levy made the offer through the League of International Red Cross. Israel has had no diplomatic ties with Iran since the Islamic revolution ousted the Shah in 1979. Dr. Mark Heller, a top researcher at the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies, said no one really expected the offer to be accepted. ``I suspect that this is an attempt to demonstrate to the Iranians that Israel has no intrinsic hostility to Iran,'' Heller said. ``But I don't think that anyone seriously expects the Iranian government will accept.'' Levy's offer to Iran comes as the new right-wing government has made various moves toward neighboring Arab states. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has invited Syrian President Hafez Assad to unconditioned talks and published his phone number, requesting any Arab states seeking peace to call. But Goren said Levy's offer to send a relief team to Iran was made on humanitarian grounds only. Before Khomeini rose to power, Iran was an island of support for the Jewish state in the Middle East, and home to a wealthy Jewish community of about 60,000. It also provided 40 percent of Israel's oil needs. Israel sent relief teams after Iran's September 1978 earthquake. Israel has hoped that President Ali Khamenei would be more moderate than his predecessor. ``Israel has tried to cultivate better relations with Iran for a long time but since the revolt the Iranian regime has been extremely hostile to Israel,'' Heller said. ``The offer is consistent with Israeli policy in the past the only change will be if Iran actually accepts.'' Clandestine contacts between Israel and Iran, however, have continued. They largely involved the sale of weapons and spare parts during Iran's eight-year war with Iraq. In December 1987, Israel sent a 42-member rescue team to search for survivors in Soviet Armenia.
