Jordan to Push for Mideast Peace Despite PLO Qualms

This nation announced Saturday that it will press ahead with efforts to arrange a Middle East peace accord despite a recent flurry of reservations being expressed by the Palestine Liberation Organization.

In an unusual move, acting Information Minister Taher Hikmat summoned journalists to his office to release the text of a five-point joint negotiating accord signed in Amman on Feb. 11 by King Hussein and PLO leader Yasser Arafat.

The accord speaks of a peace settlement based on U.N. resolutions, a confederation of Jordan and a Palestinian state, and a joint Jordanian-PLO delegation to negotiate with the Israelis.

But in the brief time since the accord was reached, several PLO leaders have publicly disagreed with it, giving rise to fears that Arafat might be attempting to renege on the pact.

Reservations of No Concern

“The reservations being issued here or there do not concern us,” Hikmat told reporters. “What concerns us was the decision of the legal, legitimate body of the PLO which endorsed the agreement.”

He was referring to a decision by the PLO’s governing Executive Committee issued last Thursday endorsing the Jordanian-PLO pact but also raising a number of reservations itself.

In addition, Arafat was believed to have written the king raising even more questions about the meaning of a proposed “confederation” with Jordan, implying that a separate Palestine would have to be established as a preliminary condition.

The series of PLO reservations has begun to sound reminiscent of April, 1983, when Arafat reached agreement with Hussein for a joint plan of action but then balked when it came time to sign.

Signature Makes a Difference

The difference now is that Hussein has Arafat’s signature on an agreement, and the release of the document Saturday appeared aimed at committing Arafat and the PLO leadership to abiding by the five-point accord.

The agreement makes no mention of U.N. Security Council Resolution 242, which acknowledges Israel’s right to exist within secure boundaries. The PLO rejects the resolution because it refers to Palestinians only as refugees.

It appears that the greatest differences are over the question of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation at any future negotiations.

While the text of the accord cited agreement on a joint delegation, PLO leaders have been insisting that the PLO would attend any negotiations on its own.

Joint Delegation Rejected

Khalil Wazir, the deputy commander of the PLO armed forces and a close aide to Arafat, said the PLO “will not give a mandate to anybody and rejects a joint representation or deputizing by any party.”

Farouk Kaddoumi, the head of the PLO’s political department, said the PLO insists on the “absolute right of self-determination without outside interference and to set up an independent state on its national territory.”

In fact, the text of the agreement released by the Jordanians says that the Palestinians will have exercised their right of self-determination when “Jordanians and Palestinians will be able to do so within the context of the formation of the proposed confederated Arab states of Jordan and Palestine.”

When asked about the absence of U.N. Resolution 242 from the document, Hikmat said that the references to U.N. resolutions were meant to include all of those issued by the world body on the subject since the 1967 Middle East war.