Jordan Warns PLO on Terror : Says Ties Will End if Incidents Continue

While Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed during talks earlier this week to push ahead with their joint Mideast peace initiative, King Hussein warned PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat that their relations will end if there is another terrorist incident such as the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, Jordanian officials said Thursday.

Thus, Jordan and the PLO have embarked on a probationary period to determine if their relationship can survive the strains of the last few weeks, these officials said.

“They didn’t sign anything, but it is clear that the PLO is operating under new ground rules” from the Jordanians, one diplomat said.

In addition to the Achille Lauro affair, King Hussein, who met Arafat on Monday night, was upset with the PLO over the murder of three Israelis in Larnaca, Cyprus, in late September and the collapse two weeks ago of a planned meeting in London between British officials and two senior PLO aides.

‘Accepted His Criticism’

“The king was forceful and blunt,” said one official. “He criticized their mistakes one by one. They accepted his criticism.”

While Arafat was not asked to make any written promises, one Jordanian official said that “it was implicit that the PLO would stop all violence outside the occupied territories.” The PLO maintains that violence in Israeli-occupied lands is justifiable resistance against illegal oppression.

Hussein and Arafat agreed Feb. 11 to pursue a joint peace initiative aimed at resolving the Mideast dispute through negotiations conducted in an international conference involving all of the parties concerned as well as the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council.

The PLO has portrayed the just-concluded Jordanian talks in their most favorable light, saying that the negotiations were “brotherly and friendly.” A Jordanian statement on Tuesday also spoke of “frankness and clarity” in the exchange.

Jordanians ‘Dissatisfied’

But Hani Hassan, a close political adviser to Arafat, acknowledged that the Jordanians are “very dissatisfied” with recent developments, particularly the Achille Lauro hijacking in which an elderly American passenger was murdered. Hassan said the two sides agreed not to carry out acts “that could hurt or undermine the Feb. 11 agreement.”

According to the Jordanian officials, Hussein and Prime Minister Zaid Rifai, who met separately with Arafat on Tuesday, gave the PLO chairman a strong warning about how future terrorist acts might jeopardize their relations, although they declined to describe it as an ultimatum.

“If there is another thing like the Achille Lauro, that means the PLO are excluding themselves from the peace process,” said one high-ranking Jordanian official. “We will look to the Palestinians to not only reject and condemn this kind of terrorism, but to disown the participants in it as well.”

Action Against Abbas

The Jordanians said they pressed Arafat to take steps against Abul Abbas, a member of the PLO executive committee and leader of a PLO faction called the Palestine Liberation Front, accused by the United States of masterminding the operation that led to the Achille Lauro hijacking.

Abbas, whose whereabouts are unknown, has said his only role was to negotiate with the four Palestinian hijackers and persuade them to surrender. The hijackers have been imprisoned in Italy since the EgyptAir jet carrying them out of Egypt was intercepted by U.S. warplanes and forced to land in Sicily.

Arafat reportedly refused to make any move against Abbas, saying that removing him from the executive committee--Arafat’s nominal Cabinet--would make the PLO chairman seem like a tool of the United States and would mean the end of his PLO coalition.

However, PLO officials have said that the organization is working on a report about Abbas’ role in the hijacking that is expected to be highly critical.

Firm Promise Reported

The Jordanians said Arafat had given Hussein a firm promise to impose more discipline on the unruly PLO, which is in reality a loose coalition of factions lacking any real coordination.

“There was more understanding from them of what is required to be our political partner,” an official said. “Now they have promised to do it. The real question is, can they do it? We just don’t have an answer.”

If the PLO fails to live up to its promises, the officials said, they hope that Palestinians will turn to new leaders and abandon the PLO. But they acknowledged that such a change would freeze the peace process for several years to come.

After the Arafat talks, the officials said, it appeared clearer than before that both the Americans and the Jordanians are no longer interested in having a preliminary round of talks that would involve a Jordanian-Palestinian delegation excluding PLO officials.

Talks Bid Ends

An attempt to arrange such a meeting during the summer ended unsuccessfully after a dispute over which Palestinians would be considered acceptable.

Now, according to both Jordanian and Palestinian officials, the next logical step appears to be moving directly to some form of international conference.

However, Israeli officials continue to insist that they will not sit down with PLO officials in any forum. The Americans insist that the PLO must first recognize Israel’s right to exist before joining any talks.

One Jordanian official said that Arafat has actually agreed to accept U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338--which assure the right of all states in the area to live within secure borders--two months ago. But Arafat refused to allow Hussein to make his acceptance public until Israel offered a significant concession in return.