Shamir Defends Tunisia Attack as Warning to PLO

Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir today defended his country’s attack on targets in Tunisia as a warning to the Palestine Liberation Organization.

“We have to warn them, we have to do it in order to prevent such acts in the future,” he told Jewish and other community leaders here.

“We are creating doubts among them that this is not the way to achieve anything. What we want is to encourage the more moderate elements in the Palestinian Arabs and give them an opportunity to think about different ways to get some progress in their situation.”

Israeli jets flew 1,500 miles Tuesday to pound PLO headquarters in Tunis in retaliation for the Yom Kippur slaying of three Israelis on a yacht in Larnaca, Cyprus.

Shamir ruled out Israel’s participation in any Middle East peace moves which included the PLO or the Soviet Union.

“If a leader in the Middle East wants really to have peace he has to say, ‘I am ready to sit down with the representatives of Israel and talk without preconditions,’ ” he said.

“If there are preconditions, if they want to call for an international peace conference including the Soviet Union, or any other opponent of peace in our area, it is proof his interest is not in peace.”

Syria recently called for an international conference on the Middle East with the participation of the Soviet Union, the United States and the PLO as well as Israel and the Arab states.