Arabs await P.L.O. stance

Press, 8 September 1982, Page 8

Arabs await P.L.O. stance

NZPA-Reuter Fez The Arab heads of State started the search for a unified stand yesterday on ways to solve the Palestinian question in their first meeting since Israel invaded Lebanon three months ago. A United States call for Palestinian self-rule on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in association with Jordan, billed as the Reagan Plan, is expected to be the main point in their talks, during the three-day conference in Fez, Morocco. They would also discuss an Arab plan drawn up by moderate states which hoped to win support from radical leaders and the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said Arab officials. The conference was

opened yesterday by King Hassan, who announced that the 14 heads of State and six other delegation leaders would map out their strategy behind closed doors. King Hassan also welcomed the P.L.O. leader, Yasser Arafat, to the meeting. The Fez summit conference is expected to be one of the most decisive meetings in the history of the Arab League. President Ronald Reagan’s plan, announced last week, has been condemned by Arab hard-liners and rejected by the Israeli Government. But Israel's Labour Opposition and moderate Arab states have given it a cautious welcome. The P.L.O. has not yet made its position known.

The last-minute Arab peace plan replaces a controversial Saudi Arabian proposal that called for the recognition of Israel within its pre-1967 borders. The new plan, which officials said was the work of Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, said that the P.L.O. must be associated with a peace process leading to the creation of a Palestinian State alongside Israel. It recommends that the United Nations Security Council should guarantee the security of the states in the region.' The officials said that the moderates hoped the draft would be adopted as an Arab plan by the summit meeting with the backing of Syria and the P.L.O. The summit meeting’s 28-

item agenda also includes a Lebanese demand for the end of the Syrian peace-keeping mandate in Lebanon and a discussion of the Iraq-Iran war:

Informed Moroccan sources said that the working sessions of the conference were being held in the nearby mountain resort of Ifrane amid tight security. ' The so-called Fahd Plan, put forward a year ago by the then Crown Prince — now' King Fahd of Saudi Arabia - recognised Israel in return for the creation of a Palestinian State.

It was radical Arab opposition to the plan, spearheaded by Syria, that led to a breakdown of the twelfth Arab summit meeting in Fez last November.