Hussein Rejects Shultz’s Plea for Partial Settlement

Jordan’s King Hussein told U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz today that he rejected a partial settlement to the Arab-Israeli conflict and said the U.S. peace initiative for the Middle East needs developing.

A Jordanian Embassy statement issued after a three-hour meeting between Shultz and Hussein in London said the Jordanian monarch reiterated his adherence to an international peace conference on the Middle East.

Key Role in Process

“His Majesty also asserted to Secretary Shultz Jordan’s rejection of any partial, interim or unilateral settlement,” the statement said.

“His Majesty indicated to the American secretary of state that the elements of these new American ideas required development to correspond with the requirements for a just and durable peace,” it added.

Hussein, who was out of Jordan when Shultz visited Amman on Saturday and Monday, has a key role in the peace process not only because Israel seized the West Bank from Jordan but because a majority of Jordan’s people are Palestinians.

Shultz, who flew to London from Tel Aviv to see the Jordanian king and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in separate meetings, is due later to travel to Brussels to brief President Reagan on his six-day tour of Middle Eastern capitals.

Shortly after the secretary of state’s arrival in London, Egypt’s Middle East News Agency, quoting diplomatic sources, said Shultz is expected to return to Cairo on Friday for a second round of talks this week with President Hosni Mubarak. Official Egyptian comment was not immediately available.

May See Palestinians

The news agency reported also that Shultz may meet in Cairo with a Palestinian delegation selected from a list of names approved by Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat.

The U.S. initiative, prompted by widespread violence since December in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, develops earlier U.S. ideas for interim Palestinian self-rule to be followed by Arab-Israeli talks on a comprehensive settlement.