Confederation may weaken P.L.O.
NZPA-Reuter Tunis King Hussein of Jordan is ready to declare a Jor-danian-Palestinian confederation which would negotiate an Israeli withdrawal from occupied Arab territory, a top Palestine Liberation Organisation official has said. Salah Khalaf, deputy to the P.L.O. leader, Yasser Arafat, in the biggest P.L.O. grouping, Fatah, said it would be a mistake for the P.L.O. to go along with any such move. He said this would go against decisions taken by the Palestine National Council (the P.L.O. Parlia-ment-in-exile) Mr Khalaf, speaking in
Tunis, where the P.L.O. has its headquarters, said the announcement of a confederation would mean the formation of a JordanianPalestinian Government. “I am convinced that it is this confederal Government which will carry out negotiations over the head of the P.L.0.,” he said. Arafat and King Hussein signed an accord in February envisaging a Pales-tinian-Jordanian confederation following a United Nations-sponsored international Middle East peace conference.
Mr Khalaf emphasised that such a confederation was only possible after negotiations were concluded for the setting up of an
independent Palestinian State in land now occupied by Israel, which could then be confederated with Jordan.
The Arafat-Hussein agreement called for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank of the Jordan and the Gaza Strip, occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.
Western diplomatic sources said that the formation of a provisional Jor-danian-Palestinian Government would seriously weaken the role of the P.L.O.
Arafat has in the past opposed setting up a Palestinian Government-in-exile, saying it would reduce the P.L.O.’s flexibility and make
it prey to stronger Governments.
Since P.L.O. guerrillas were forced to leave Beirut in 1982, the movement has been effectively split by a rebellion, dividing Arafat supporters and pro-Syrian factions based in Damascus.
The P.L.O. is seeking to start a dialogue with the United States in the framework of a joint PalestinianJordanian delegation. Israel refuses, however to talk with a delegation that includes P.L.O. members. The United States Secretary of State, George Shultz, has just finished a Middle East tour to discuss the make-up of such a delegation.
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Press, 15 May 1985, Page 10
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341Confederation may weaken P.L.O. Press, 15 May 1985, Page 10
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