Britain Drops Talks With PLO Leaders : Pledge to Renounce Violence Not Kept, Foreign Office Says

Britain today canceled a controversial meeting with two prominent PLO officials, saying they had reneged on a pledge to renounce violence and publicly advocate a peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe had been due to have talks today with the two Palestine Liberation Organization leaders who are part of a joint Palestinian-Jordanian delegation.

Howe said in a statement that, after arriving in Britain, the two Palestinians, Bishop Elias Khoury and Mohammed Milhem, had refused to endorse a commitment agreed to with Jordan explicitly accepting Israel’s right to exist within secure and recognized borders.

‘Cannot Take Place’

“In these circumstances, we have concluded that the meeting with the joint delegation cannot take place,” Howe said.

However, he had a 30-minute meeting with two Jordanian members of the delegation, Deputy Prime Minister Abdul-Wahab Majali and Foreign Minister Taher Masri, who arrived here Saturday.

The cancellation of the talks with the PLO envoys is a serious embarrassment for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who invited the Palestinians to London last month. At that time she called them men of peace.

Adding to the embarrassment, PLO sources denied that the two men had promised to publicly renounce violence.

Praise From Israel

Israel praised the cancellation. “We have warned of the PLO’s double talk in the past, so their refusal is nothing new but is further proof that the PLO does not have peaceful intentions and does not accept our right to exist,” an Israeli official said.

Britain had stuck to the invitation in the face of condemnation by Jewish groups at home and abroad and an upsurge of Palestinian-related violence, including last week’s hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

Howe called the cancellation a setback to the prospects of peace in the Middle East.