Thatcher Invites PLO to London for Talks : Bid Considered First Formal Recognition of Group’s Peace Role

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said today that Britain has invited two senior representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization to visit London for talks with Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe.

She told a press conference at the end of a two-day visit to Jordan that the Palestinians would be part of a joint delegation with Jordan.

Analysts said her invitation amounts to the first open recognition that the PLO has a direct role in the Mideast peace process, something the U.S. has never conceded.

Thatcher named as the two representatives Bishop Elia Khoury and Mohammed Milhelm, former mayor of the West Bank town of Halhoul. Both are members of the PLO executive committee, or Cabinet.

“We know them to be men of peace. We know they are opposed to terrorism and violence,” Thatcher said.

She added that she hoped the move would help the United States to arrange a meeting with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, the proposed next step in Jordan King Hussein’s latest Middle East peace initiative.

Hussein’s initiative stems from a Feb. 11 agreement with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat.

“I hope this will be seen as a fresh and constructive step towards supporting the king,” Thatcher said, adding that the U.S. government had been informed in advance of Britain’s decision to extend the invitation.

Thatcher also said her announcement represented “a fresh step in the Middle East peace process. I hope (it) will help the U.S. to take a similar step.”

While lamenting that the peace process was going much more slowly than had been hoped, Thatcher said she and Hussein still differed on his desire for an international conference to discuss the Middle East that would include U.N. Security Council members, among them the Soviet Union.

But she said she recognized that some sort of international framework would have to be worked out before direct negotiations could go ahead.