Jordan’s List for Peace Talks ‘a Joke,’ Israeli Officials Say, Citing Ties to PLO

Seven Palestinians included on a Jordanian list of proposed negotiating partners for preliminary Arab-American talks on Mideast peace are so closely associated with the Palestine Liberation Organization that the whole exercise is “a joke,” senior Israeli sources said here Thursday.

While they refused to do so publicly, the sources privately confirmed the identities of the seven whose names were submitted to Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres on Wednesday by U.S. Charge d’Affaires Robert A. Flaten.

Without identifying the proposed delegates, Peres in a television interview Wednesday night rejected the list as unacceptable and “a bad opening move” in the renewed search for peace in the region.

Israelis Angered

Senior Israeli officials were clearly surprised and angered by the names on the list. “It’s much more a PLO list than we had expected,” said one.

Israeli and diplomatic sources confirmed on Thursday that the seven names on the list are:

--Khaled Hassan, a member of the central committee of the dominant Fatah faction in the PLO and head of the Palestine National Council’s foreign relations committee. Originally from the Israeli town of Safed, Hassan is a close associate of PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat and author of several books on possible Mideast negotiations.

--Salah Taamri, also known as Assad Suleiman Abdel Kadar, a member of the PLO Supreme Military Council who was captured during the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and later released in a prisoner exchange. Originally from the Bethlehem area, he is married to Dina Abdel Hamid, an ex-wife of Jordan’s King Hussein.

--Hatem Husseini, a member of the PLO delegation at the United Nations who is considered to be an expert on the United States.

--Nabil Shaath, a PLO representative in Cairo and a member of the Palestine National Council who is considered an expert on the Camp David agreements.

--Hana Seniora, editor of the pro-PLO East Jerusalem newspaper, Al Fajr.

--Faiz abu Rahma, former head of the lawyers’ association in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, who acted as spokesman for a Palestinian delegation that met here with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy several weeks ago.

--Mohammed Sdeith, a little known figure described by Israeli intelligence sources as a low-level PLO and Palestine National Council bureaucrat.

‘What Chutzpah!’

An Israeli official said “the first reaction” here to the list was “What chutzpah!” This official said the list included so many prominent PLO figures as to be “a joke,” and he predicted that the United States will reject it at least in part.

“As much as the United States wants to go ahead with the (peace) process, and it does want to go ahead, I don’t think they will go this far,” the official said.

Speaking on condition that he not be identified, another official said that Israel “will remind the United States of its commitment” dating from 1974 not to talk to PLO representatives so long as the organization refuses to recognize Israel’s right to exist. “I think the Americans will take our position into consideration,” he said.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak first proposed last winter that the United States meet with a joint delegation of Jordanians and Palestinians to prepare the way for direct peace talks with Israel. The United States said it was willing to go along, provided that the delegation does not include members of the PLO, with whom Israel refuses to negotiate.

Jordan submitted a PLO-approved list of proposed Palestinian delegates to Washington last week and asked the United States to select four of the names. It was a copy of this full list that was delivered to Peres on Wednesday by Flaten, who heads the U.S. mission in Israel until the arrival of new U.S. Ambassador Thomas R. Pickering.

If the United States approves any or all of these proposed delegates, Assistant Secretary of State Murphy is expected to return to the region for preliminary talks, probably in Amman, Jordan.

No U.S. Reaction

In a nationally televised interview Wednesday night, Peres said the United States has not expressed its assessment of the proposed delegates and that Israel is not expected at this stage to react officially to the list.

Peres also said that he was surprised that the list included none of the well-known moderate Palestinian leaders from the occupied territories--a comment that was erroneously understood by several news organizations here and abroad on Wednesday to mean that there were no representatives from the West Bank and Gaza Strip among the proposed delegates.

In fact, two of the seven proposed Palestinian representatives are from the occupied territories--journalist Seniora and lawyer Abu Rahma.

Israeli officials are convinced the proposed preliminary Arab-American talks are a PLO ruse to win U.S. recognition, and that, if successful, the Palestinians will sabotage any direct peace negotiations between Jordan and Israel.

However, pro-PLO Palestinians from the occupied territories billed the proposed talks as a major move forward. “I think from a Palestinian point of view this is a historic move,” said Ibrahim Karaeen, co-owner of East Jerusalem’s pro-PLO Palestine Press Service. He said it was the first time the PLO has gone so far as to propose a list of potential delegates to peace talks.