E.E.C. stand on Israel, P.L.O. likely to stay

Press, 5 June 1982, Page 9

E.E.C. stand on Israel, P.L.O. likely to stay

NZPA-Reuter Jerusalem The West German Foreign Minister (Mr Hans-Dietrich Genscher) ends a brief visit to Israel today after apparently advising its leaders not to expect a new West European declaration on the Middle East peace process.

Israel has strongly opposed the European Economic Community's 1980 Venice declaration calling for the Palestine Liberation Organisation to be invited to join the Middle East peace talks.

Israeli officials quoted the Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin) as telling Mr Genscher yesterday that Israel still’ regarded the P.L.O. as ,the biggest obstacle to peace The officials, said that Mr Begin repeated that Israel regarded European declarations supporting Palestinian self-determination as unhelpful to the peace process. Reinforcing this longstanding Israeli view, the Foreign Minister (Mr Yitzhak Shamir) told a public meeting yesterday that the total destruction of the P.L.O. was necessary if a complete

Middle East peace were to be achieved. Mr Genscher told a news conference yesterday that he felt the Community would not adopt a new declaration soon. Since West Germany assumes the presidency of the E.E.C. Council of Ministers in January, Mr Genscher's statements appeared to rule out a change in the European position until well into 1983.

Mr Genscher also said he expected the European Community to continue to show a serious interest in Middle East peace efforts and would not oppose the Camp David I Israeli-Egyptian agreements.

Israeli leaders have felt the West European attitude to the Camp David accords to be equivocal. Recent visits by President Francois Mitterrand (France) and the Belgian Foreign Minister (Mr Leo Tindemans), who is the E.E.C. president, led some Israeli leaders to' believe that the Community might soon change its stand on Camp David, as well as the Venice declaration itself. Israeli officials said that Mr Shamir had accepted Mr Genscher's invitation to visit West Germany, probably by the end of the year. But Mr Genscher, who is the first senior German official to visit Israel since Mr Begin’s strong personal attack on the West German Chancellor (Mr Helmut Schmidt) last year, said Israeli leaders had not renewed an outstanding invitation to the Chancellor to tour the country.