PLO Tries to Help in Talks to Free Hostages, Arafat Spokesman Says

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s chief spokesman denied Tuesday that the PLO was responsible for the hijacking of an Italian cruise ship. He said that a high-level PLO delegation has gone to Egypt to try to help in any negotiations for the release of the hostage passengers and crew.

PLO headquarters here issued a statement that said, “The PLO declares that we have no relationship to this operation or to any terrorist group, and we are trying our best to resolve it.”

Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, chief spokesman for PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, added that two senior PLO officials have left for Cairo to help Egyptian officials in negotiating with the gunmen who seized the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro on Monday after it had called at Alexandria, Egypt.

“We are trying to convince the hijackers to surrender,” Abdel-Rahman said. “We want to do our best to stop this stupid operation quickly.”

According to reports from Egypt, the ship was hijacked by at least seven gunmen who said they were members of the Palestine Liberation Front, identified as a PLO splinter group. The gunmen demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and threatened to blow up the ship if their demands were not met.

The Palestine Liberation Front is divided into three factions, a pro-Arafat group based in Tunis and two anti-Arafat groups based in Damascus, Syria, and Libya.

Abdel-Rahman said the Tunis-based faction was not responsible for the attack and noted that the Syrian group, in a statement issued Tuesday in Damascus, has also denied responsibility. He said that Mohammed Abas, leader of the Tunis-based faction, was one of the two officials dispatched to Egypt by Arafat to negotiate with the gunmen. The other was identified as Hanni Hassan, one of Arafat’s top aides.

Abdel-Rahman described the hijacking as “an attempt to discredit” the PLO at a time when it is engaged in peace efforts with Jordan and is also receiving international expressions of sympathy as a result of the Israeli raid on PLO headquarters here last week.

“Isn’t it strange,” he said, “that this happens now, just when the PLO is receiving support and sympathy as victims from most of the countries of the world? It is obvious that this attack is meant to discredit us.”

The Israeli air raid on the PLO headquarters, in which more than 60 people were killed, was carried out in retaliation for the slaying of three Israelis aboard a yacht in Cyprus last month.