Accord Moves Jordan, PLO to Turning Point

The Palestine Liberation Organization and Jordan, having agreed on a formula for joint action in the Middle East, have apparently reached a turning point in their often-stormy relations, according to Western diplomats here.

After talks here Monday, PLO leader Yasser Arafat is believed to have initialed a detailed agreement with King Hussein of Jordan, and the diplomats called that a major accomplishment in itself.

“It’s the existence of the agreement that is new,” said one diplomat who follows the PLO. “There has never been one before.”

Neither side has released any details of the agreement, prompting some observers to voice skepticism that the ever-wily Arafat has made any concrete concessions.

Holding Bitter Memories

But the diplomats said Arafat must still sell the terms of the agreement to PLO hard-liners, many of whom still harbor bitter memories of the infamous “Black September” in 1970, when Hussein’s troops forcibly expelled the guerrilla group from Jordan.

A terse announcement released by Hussein’s palace said only that the two agreed on a “formula for joint Jordanian-Palestinian action to achieve a just settlement of the Palestinian problem.”

Arafat left early Tuesday for Tunis, Tunisia, where he has reportedly convened a meeting of the Central Committee of Fatah, the PLO’s main faction--which he also heads--in an effort to win its support for the deal with Jordan.

“The hard-liners have their swords drawn at the moment,” one diplomat said. “They’re just going nuts.”

If he can win Fatah’s support, Arafat is expected to return to Jordan later this month to formally sign the agreement with Hussein.

Failure to Return

Arafat and Hussein reached the same juncture in April, 1983, with a formal agreement to take joint action, but Arafat got cold feet at the last minute. After flying off to receive what seemed like rubber-stamp approval from Fatah’s rank and file, he never came back to sign the accord.

A number of things have changed since then, leading diplomatic analysts to conclude that this time Arafat may have little choice but to sign.

Principally, the major change has been the rift within the PLO that has split Arafat from dissident factions based in Syria.

The prevailing diplomatic view is that, having lost his base in Lebanon after the 1982 Israeli invasion and having no support in Syria, Arafat has no choice but to align himself with Jordan if he hopes to achieve anything. The only apparent alternative is to attempt to keep his Palestinian liberation struggle alive from Tunisia, his current base of operations, a world away from the Palestinians of the occupied territories.

It also appears, the diplomats said, that Arafat succeeded in bending Hussein away from acceptance of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which was the cornerstone of Hussein’s peace offering to the Palestinians’ so-called parliament-in-exile when it met here in November.

Unacceptable to PLO

The resolution, which guarantees Israel’s right to exist within secure boundaries, is unacceptable to the PLO because it refers to the Palestinians only as refugees.

Mohammed Milhem, a PLO moderate and a member of the organization’s governing Executive Committee, said Tuesday that Resolution 242 is a “red line” that the PLO will not cross at this stage because acceptance would not guarantee U.S. or Israeli acceptance of the PLO.

Milhem, who took part in the talks with the Jordanians, said the agreement is a “message to the American Administration” that the PLO is prepared to negotiate.

President Reagan has suggested that a settlement for the Palestinian problem could be found in establishing self-government for the Palestinians living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip in some form of association with Hussein’s government.

Israel rejected the Reagan initiative, which was announced in 1982, but a group of moderate Arab states led by Egypt and Saudi Arabia have been trying to get the plan revived.