Arafat May End His Role in Peace Bid With Jordan

Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, asserting that the United States was to blame for last week’s Israeli raid against his Tunis headquarters, suggested Monday that he may withdraw from current peace efforts unless he receives “guarantees” from the Reagan Administration that it will “stop trying to assassinate me.”

Arafat, in an hourlong interview in a closely guarded villa in Tunis, said he remains “committed to the struggle for peace.” However, he added that the raid, which destroyed his seaside headquarters here and killed more than 60 people, has forced him to “reassess” the PLO’s participation in a joint peace initiative launched last February with Jordan’s King Hussein.

That initiative, which is also supported by Egypt, currently focuses on efforts to arrange a meeting between Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy and a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation to discuss possible arrangements for eventual peace talks with Israel.

But Arafat, who repeated assertions that the White House had advance knowledge of the Oct. 1 raid, said the peace process can now go forward only if he receives “guarantees from the President of the United States . . . that the attempt to assassinate me” won’t be repeated.

“First of all, I want a guarantee from the President. I want a clarification, a clear answer,” Arafat said. “Is the decision to kill me still operative?”

Asked if the Murphy meeting could take place without such guarantees, Arafat replied: “No, because it is obvious and clear. The United States has a two-faced policy, not only towards me but towards those who are its friends, King Hussein and President (Hosni) Mubarak” of Egypt.

Refueling Allegation

Israel raided the PLO compound here in retaliation for the Sept. 25 slaying by pro-Palestinian terrorists of three Israeli tourists in Cyprus. Arafat has repeatedly denied that the PLO had anything to do with the slayings and he repeated those denials Monday.

Arafat has also asserted that the Israeli fighter-bombers that destroyed his headquarters refueled at a U.S.-run North Atlantic Treaty Organization base in Europe during their 1,300-mile flight from Israel to Tunisia on the North African coast.

The United States and Israel have both categorically denied this. Israel said the planes were refueled in midair by two Boeing 707s that the Israelis had converted into tankers. The White House and the Israeli government have also said that the United States had no advance knowledge of the raid.

However, these assurances have failed to mollify Tunisian officials, who were angered by President Reagan’s initial description of the raid as a “legitimate response” to terrorism, although the President has since been critical of the Israelis and has condemned all acts of terrorism.

The Tunisians also expressed skepticism that the Israeli planes could have flown so long a distance over the Mediterranean without being detected by radar monitors of the U.S. 6th Fleet.

Shadowy Evasion?

Press accounts have suggested that the Israeli planes may have evaded detection by the 6th Fleet by hiding in the shadow of the 707s. The Pentagon has never explained how the 6th Fleet missed the Israeli operation.

In the interview, conducted in an office that the PLO has taken over as a temporary headquarters, Arafat asserted that he has proof that the planes refueled at a NATO base “on the Mediterranean.” But he said he could not say more out of consideration “for the country concerned.”

Arafat accused Reagan’s national security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, of coordinating U.S. support for the raid.

“It is McFarlane who accepted the whole plan and gave the orders to the American base in the Mediterranean,” Arafat asserted. “It was McFarlane who dragged the prestige and credibility of America into the swamp.”

Arafat, sitting behind a large executive desk with a pistol strapped to his hip, also had harsh words for Reagan, whom he accused of giving “the green light” to the operation.

“The President has a double face. At the same time that he was discussing the joint Jordanian-Palestinian accord with Mubarak and Hussein, he was giving his blessing and approval for the assassination of one of the two figures who signed the accord. This is incredible and shameful, . . . another Watergate,” Arafat charged.

‘Guarantees of Credibility’

Arafat said that his “reassessment” of the PLO’s participation in the Jordanian-Palestinian accord will be completed “in five or six days.”

Asked what sort of American guarantees he wanted in return for sticking by the Amman initiative, Arafat replied: “Guarantees of American credibility, guarantees that America will pursue a policy with one face, not two.” He said that such guarantees could be conveyed “in public or private . . . by any means as long as we get them.”

The Jordanian-Palestinian peace plan, which Hussein was discussing with Reagan in Washington at the time of the raid, calls for the start of a U.S.-Palestinian dialogue leading to U.S. recognition of the PLO in exchange for the PLO’s acceptance of U.N. resolutions 242 and 338, affirming Israel’s right to exist. The next step would be negotiations among Israel, Jordan and the PLO at a U.S.-sponsored international peace conference.

The United States, however, has said that it does not want to be drawn into a dialogue with the PLO until the organization first recognizes Israel’s right to exist by endorsing the two U.N. resolutions. Washington also wants the dialogue to lead to direct talks with Israel rather than to an international conference that would bring the Soviet Union into the peace process.

‘Whole Policy Reassessment’

Arafat refused to say when or under what conditions he would publicly recognize Israel’s right to exist, saying that depended on the outcome “of the reassessment that our whole policy is now undergoing.”