Shultz Expects Mideast Peace Initiatives : Israel, Arabs Realize U.S. Won’t Do Job for Them, He Asserts

Secretary of State George P. Shultz said Sunday that Israel and its Arab neighbors are moving toward new Mideast peace initiatives because they have finally realized that the United States will not put a settlement together for them.

“I think the message that we have tried to give over there--namely, that if peace is going to come about, the parties out there are going to have to think it over and decide some things for themselves--that message has gotten through,” Shultz said.

Interviewed on the ABC-TV program “This Week with David Brinkley,” Shultz said, “We’re saying the United States is ready and has been very heavily involved in all this and is ready to undertake further things, but we want to see some ante put on the table by everybody, and that is beginning to happen.”

Shultz cited as examples of “favorable developments” Jordan’s decision to renew diplomatic relations with Egypt despite Cairo’s peace treaty with Israel, Iraq’s decision to renew diplomatic relations with the United States and Jordanian King Hussein’s decision “to engage with some sort of Palestinian delegation on the idea of direct negotiations with Israel.”

Shultz offered his defense of U.S. policy in response to complaints by Hussein and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak that the United States has failed to take advantage of Hussein’s agreement with Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to pursue a joint strategy for seeking peace with Israel.

In separate interviews Sunday, Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres showed just how far apart they remain in spite of the hectic round of diplomacy.

Demand for PLO Role

In an interview with the New York Times, Hussein said he cannot go further into the peace process unless the United States agrees to confer with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. Moreover, Hussein was quoted as saying that he will not participate in any negotiations that do not include the PLO.

Peres, interviewed on the CBS-TV program “Face the Nation,” said Israel “would be ready to talk straight and directly with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation that does not include declared members of the PLO.” Israel refuses even to talk with the PLO, which it considers a terrorist organization.

Shultz was ambiguous about the possibilities of a U.S. meeting with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation that did not include known PLO members, but he ruled out any U.S. dealings with the PLO unless the organization specifically recognizes Israel and accepts U.N. Security Council Resolution 242. The resolution calls for Israel to withdraw from territory it occupied during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war in exchange for peace within secure and recognized borders.

The PLO has been reluctant to accept Resolution 242 because it makes no reference to national rights for Palestinians. However, the latest Jordanian-PLO agreement states acceptance of all U.N. Security Council resolutions without specifically including or excluding 242. Mubarak maintains that this should be enough to satisfy the U.S. requirement.

Shultz said he is interested to “see if it is possible to construct a Palestinian delegation that is not a PLO delegation.”

Peres said Israel would oppose any preliminary meeting between U.S. officials and such a delegation because that would “create the illusion that Washington will impose a solution on Israel.”

Asked if the United States would meet a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, Shultz said, “Your question doesn’t lend itself (to an answer of) yes or no.” He would not elaborate.