Arafat diplomacy comes under fire

Press, 19 February 1983, Page 8

Arafat diplomacy comes under fire

NZPA-Reuter Algiers The Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s cautious diplomacy on Middle East peace moves came under sustained fire on the first day of general debate at the Palestinian National Council meeting yesterday. The 10-day session of the P.N.C., a parliament-in-exile, aims to lay down the strategy after last (northern) summer’s battle of Beirut.

The radical guerrilla chief, George Habash, fired the first shot when he told the P.N.C. that every Middle East peace plan proposed after Palestinian guerrillas were withdrawn from Beirut last year involved surrender. All the first nine speakers took a hard-line stance, and none said a word in support of President Ronald Reagan’s call for Palestinian self-rule on the Israelioccupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip in association with Jordan. Mr Arafat has held back from rejecting the Reagan

plan outright, holding several rounds of talks with King Hussein of Jordan on a possible confederal link between the kingdom and a future Palestinian State. No speaker criticised Mr Arafat by name, but Mr Habash, the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, made

obvious jibes and two other heads of guerrilla factions stated their hostility to his approach. The militant atmosphere was reinforced by a message read out to the P.N.C. from Palestinians interned in an Israeli camp at Ansar, in southern Lebanon. The message alleged Israeli torture of inmates, said to total more than' 5000, and complained of lack of medical facilities. It called on Arab States to help them to find a permanent home. Informed sources said that the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation was still debating the final wording of its recommendations to the P.N.C. on peace proposals and future strategy. But they said the clearly uncompromising atmosphere among P.N.C. members and speakers so far indicated that the resolutions eventually adopted were sure to tie Mr Arafat’s hand over peace moves.