The World : PLO to Get Ties to Spain

Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister Francisco Fernandez Ordonez said Spain will grant full diplomatic status to the Palestine Liberation Organization. “It (the PLO) is not a state as such, but it has all those characteristics,” Ordonez said upon his return from Tunis, Tunisia, where he met with Arab League Secretary General Chedli Klibi. “This means they would have some of the same rights as similar organizations. . . .” Diplomats said the move was an effort to improve relations with Arab countries that protested Spain’s establishment of diplomatic ties with Israel on Jan. 17. Ordonez told reporters before he left Tunis that Madrid supports “self-determination and creation of an independent state for the Palestinian people.”