U.S. Envoy Sees No Palestinians, Ends Mission

A U.S. mission to revive peace talks in the Mideast ended in apparent deadlock Sunday as Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy left for home without meeting a joint delegation of Jordanian and Palestinian officials.

Although hopes for any breakthrough appeared to have faded last week, Jordanian and Palestinian sources said Sunday that they were keenly disappointed by Murphy’s failure to meet with the joint delegation.

“We were seeking a breakthrough. We thought this might be the moment,” said Hanna Seniora, one of the Palestinian members of the proposed delegation. “But at the last moment, all we saw was Murphy bidding us goodby.”

Palestinian sources characterized the failure of the meeting to materialize as a “real blow” to the peace plan worked out last February by Jordan’s King Hussein and Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat. They declined to predict what would happen next but said that Arafat, who left Amman on Saturday for Iraq, will return “in a few days” to confer with Hussein “on our next moves.”

Murphy, in a brief statement distributed to reporters, indicated that the meeting did not take place because of a failure to resolve crucial differences over its agenda and what should come after it. However, Murphy’s statement added that the United States is still willing to enter into discussions with the delegation, whose proposed members include several Palestinians associated with the PLO, provided that such talks can further the peace process.

“The object remains to chart a feasible and expeditious course for the entire process--not just one meeting. The United States remains willing to hold a meeting with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian group if it contributes to launching us on such a course,” Murphy said.

Even though the visit disappointed Palestinian hopes, Jordanian Prime Minister Ziad Rifai told reporters Saturday that some progress was made towards the start of a new peace dialogue. He did not specify the nature of the progress. However, senior Jordanian officials said that Murphy’s discussions in Amman have given rise to several “ideas” that could be used to try to finesse the still substantial differences over terms and conditions for the start of U.S. talks with a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation. They did not elaborate, except to note that Murphy’s statement left the door open to a future meeting with a joint delegation.

Jordan and the PLO want the delegation’s discussions with the United States to lead to an international peace conference, under the umbrella of the U.N. Security Council, to negotiate the creation of a confederated Jordanian-Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Under this scenario, Arafat would formally accept Israel’s right to exist in exchange for American recognition of the PLO, which would then participate as a full partner in the peace talks with Israel.

Bilateral Talks Sought

Israel, however, will not deal with the PLO, which it regards as a terrorist organization. And the United States has refused to have any direct dealings with the PLO until it first recognizes Israel’s right to exist by endorsing Security Council resolutions 242 and 338. Israel wants direct, bilateral talks with Jordan, and neither Israel nor the United States wants a U.N.-sponsored peace conference where the Soviet Union would necessarily be involved.

Murphy’s current foray into the Mideast has taken him to Israel and Egypt and to Jordan twice in an effort to narrow the gap between the rival peace scenarios. After conferring with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Alexandria on Saturday, he returned to Amman to meet again with King Hussein.

Murphy termed his talks on all four stops “frank and detailed” and said that he is now returning to Washington to report to President Reagan and Secretary of State George P. Shultz, “as they consider what we can reasonably do to support what new steps the parties in the region may be able to take in the coming weeks.”

However, Palestinian sources, blaming Murphy’s failure to meet with the joint delegation on Israeli pressure, said that the peace process could go no further without a change in the U.S. position.

“I had high expectations when Murphy first arrived in Amman,” Seniora said. “But Israeli pressure was just too much. It seems that American policy is made in Tel Aviv, not Washington.”

Slight Progress Seen

Rifai, meeting reporters just before Murphy’s return to Amman on Saturday night, conceded that a U.S. dialogue with a joint delegation could not be initiated at this time because of unresolved differences over scenarios and Israeli objections to the inclusion of all but two of the seven Palestinians in the proposed delegation. However, he maintained that progress had still been made, even though Jordan’s insistence that an international peace conference be held has not changed.

But Palestinian officials said that as far as they are concerned, there was no progress. “If there had been progress, there would have been a meeting,” one official said, adding that Rifai was trying to “cover up the failure.”