PLO to Defy Order to Close U.N. Mission
The chief PLO observer at the United Nations declared today that he will defy a U.S. order to close his mission and said that if his office is closed, Israel should be excluded from debates on the Middle East.
“We have the right to stay here, we will stay here and we will stay where we are,” Zehdi Labib Terzi, the permanent observer of the Palestine Liberation Organization, told a news conference here.
The PLO is an invitee of the United Nations.
The General Assembly may reconvene this week in an emergency session to consider the confrontation between the United States and the 159-member world body.
Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar today was drafting a letter to protest the U.S. decision to close the PLO’s U.N. observer mission by March 21 under a controversial anti-terrorism law.
No Plans to Leave U.S.
“If somebody tries to kick us out, we will not respond,” Terzi said, adding that he has no plans to leave the United States where his mission has operated for the last 13 years.
“The only way they will make me leave is to put me behind bars and take me away.”
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