Jordan Moves to Revive Mideast Peace Process

Two high-ranking Jordanian officials left for the United States on Saturday, while King Hussein traveled to Morocco in a whirlwind of diplomatic activity apparently aimed at reviving the long-dormant Middle East peace process.

Prime Minister Zaid Rifai and Foreign Minister Taher Masri headed for Washington, where they are scheduled to meet this week with Vice President George Bush, Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger.

Jordanian officials have made it clear that the mission of the visitors to the United States is to pave the way for a visit to Washington by Hussein in the near future but only after he receives assurances that the Reagan Administration is prepared to publicly endorse the holding of an international conference on the Middle East.

Hussein has been actively trying to drum up support for such a conference, which would bring together Israel, the Arab states and the Palestinians along with the United States, the Soviet Union, France, China and Britain in an effort to settle a conflict that has plagued the Middle East since Israel occupied parts of Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of the Jordan River in 1967.

Israelis Split on Plan

Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has repeatedly voiced opposition to such a conference as it is now conceived, while Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, Shamir’s predecessor as prime minister in Israel’s “national unity” government, has conditionally endorsed the idea.

Masri was quoted here Saturday as saying that he and Rifai would seek “U.S. acceptance of the conference in principle in accordance with Jordan’s point of view.”

He said that while he did not detect a shift in previous opposition in Washington to the notion of a conference, “there is more flexibility now than before.”

Jordanian officials have indicated that Hussein, who will visit the Netherlands, Belgium and Britain as well as Morocco, could go directly to Washington if his emissaries are given assurances that the Reagan Administration is willing to endorse the conference idea.

U.S. Wants Direct Talks

Washington has repeatedly said the problem should be settled in direct talks by the Arab states with Israel, an approach that Jordan and Syria have rejected.

Hussein has postponed a trip to the United States for several months because of his anger at disclosures that Washington sold arms to Iran in a move to improve relations with moderate elements of the Tehran government and in an effort to win freedom for the American hostages held prisoner by pro-Iran Muslim extremists in Lebanon.

Jordan, a moderate, pro-Western kingdom, is a close ally of Iraq in that country’s long-running war against Iran and had been given assurances that an American arms embargo was effectively preventing weapons from reaching the regime of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Hussein was also angered by Congress’ refusal to allow Jordan to buy an estimated $1 billion worth of arms from the United States because of concern about Israel’s security. He has said that the Administration did not press hard enough for the arms sale.

Jordan Solicits Support

Over the past two weeks, Jordan has been busily soliciting support from Syria, Iraq and other Arab countries for the current mission of its two officials to Washington.

According to Jordanian officials, former President Jimmy Carter came away from a recent visit to Syria with the belief that the regime of President Hafez Assad in Damascus would not oppose an international conference that provides for direct Jordanian-Israeli talks--known in diplomatic jargon as “bilateral discussions in the context of an international conference”--provided the agenda is known in advance.

Hussein dispatched Rifai to Damascus last week and then visited Syria himself Friday night in an apparent effort to nail down some form of agreement on a conference before the Washington visit.

But Syrian news media were openly critical Saturday of Hussein’s efforts, suggesting that there was still no agreement.

The so-called peace process has been moribund since February, 1986, when Hussein broke off coordination with the Palestine Liberation Organization. The break followed PLO chairman Yasser Arafat’s refusal to accept U.N. Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Efforts have been under way for several weeks to convene a session of the Palestinians’ so-called “Parliament in exile”--the Palestine National Council. Officials have said that body will meet in Algiers on April 20.

The council last met in Amman in November, 1984, and gave Arafat a mandate to negotiate with Hussein on the future of the West Bank.

Bid to End PLO Split

The forthcoming meeting is being called in an effort to settle disputes that have splintered the PLO into many competing factions since strife among them erupted in Lebanon during 1983.

Several top PLO leaders were reported Saturday to have been summoned to Moscow as part of the reconciliation efforts.

The groups have yet to reach agreement on a number of issues, with PLO dissidents insisting on the abrogation of a Feb. 11, 1985, accord between Jordan and Arafat, the replacement of Arafat by a “collective leadership,” and the severance of ties with Egypt, which some Palestinians still see as a “traitor” to the Arab cause for having signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979.