U.S. Indirectly Warns Israelis Against Raiding PLO in Jordan

The United States has implicitly warned Israel against attacking Palestine Liberation Organization bases in Jordan the way Israeli warplanes attacked a PLO facility in Tunisia on Tuesday, a senior State Department official said Thursday.

“King Hussein (of Jordan) probably has as good or better a record of fighting terrorism as anybody,” the official said. And when asked whether the United States had issued any warning to Jerusalem, he responded: “I think they (the Israelis) are well aware of King Hussein’s record on terrorism.”

Earlier this week, an Israeli Cabinet member indicated that Israel might also bomb PLO bases in Jordan.

Sharon Warning

Former Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, now minister of industry and trade in Prime Minister Shimon Peres’ coalition government, had told Israeli reporters that Hussein should learn a lessen from the Tunis attack and drive PLO offices out of Amman.

“Israel under no circumstances can tolerate the presence of terrorist organization commands so close to its border,” Sharon said.

The State Department official, who talked to a small group of reporters on the condition he would not be identified, said that the United States will urge the world community to deny sanctuary anywhere in the world to terrorists and groups that promote terrorism.

The official said Israel obtained intelligence information that the PLO base near Tunis was linked to some of a spate of recent terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens in Israel, the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River and Cyprus.

It was that linkage, he made clear, that prompted the Reagan Administration to express understanding for Israel’s reasons in attacking Tunisia, a U.S. ally with which the Israelis have no direct quarrel.

No Direct Link

U.S. spokesmen say that the PLO administrative offices in Amman have not been linked directly to terrorism. But Israel, for its part, contends that terrorism is the PLO’s only function, and the Israeli government often attempts to hold the organization responsible for all attacks on Israel--even those for which other organizations claim responsibility.

The senior U.S. official appeared to reject the Israeli theory that any PLO facility is a terrorist base. But he said the United States is determined to combat terrorism and will urge the world community to join in the effort.

“We have developed the idea in the world community that (airline) hijacking--certainly a form of terrorism--is not tolerable, so hijackers deserve no sanctuary,” the official said. “That has had a very good effect.”

Broader Concept

The official said that under his formulation, all nations would deny the use of their territory to terrorists.

“What we are trying to do in this effort to combat terrorism is to raise people’s consciousnesses and broaden the concept,” he said. “We’re not there yet.”

Tunisia permitted the PLO to establish its headquarters in Tunis after the organization evacuated Beirut under an Israeli siege in 1982. The United States encouraged Tunisia to accept the PLO office at that time to help solve the Beirut crisis.