U.S. Urged to Stress Syrian, Palestinian Contacts

The U.S. government must increase its own contacts with Syria and Palestinians and attempt to bring them into negotiations with Israel if it hopes to rejuvenate the Middle East peace process, a blue-ribbon committee said in a report issued Thursday.

The report, prepared by the Brookings Institution, calls for the United States to assume a much larger role as Mideast power broker, going far beyond the Reagan Administration’s off-and-on efforts to encourage direct negotiations between Israel and Jordan.

Secretary of State George P. Shultz is expected to return to the Middle East late next week to resume his effort to convince both Arabs and Israelis that his plan--which calls for face-to-face negotiations starting with an international conference--is the only proposal that has any chance of being accepted by both sides.

“Nobody seems to be ready to climb on our bandwagon, but everyone wants to keep it rolling,” Shultz said. “So we will keep it rolling.”

The Brookings panel, directed by William B. Quandt, a former National Security Council specialist on the Middle East, endorsed the same sort of international conference envisioned by the Shultz plan. Such a conference would have no power to impose or veto a solution but would help to encourage the parties to reach a settlement.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir has made it clear that he opposes any sort of international conference, even one with no real power. On the other hand, the Soviet Union, joined by most Arab parties, wants a conference that could impose its will.

Quandt said the Administration has based its policy on the assumption that the proper American role in the peace process is to “provide an Arab interlocutor who is ready to talk peace. But we have chosen the wrong interlocutor (Jordan). We have been knocking at a door that will not open.”

Instead of trying to persuade Jordan’s King Hussein to represent the interests of Palestinians, including the 1.4 million residents of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, the United States should be dealing directly with leaders chosen by the Palestinians themselves, the report said.

“Palestinians should be represented in any negotiations with Israel by spokesmen of their own choosing,” the report said. “ . . .The United States should have no objection to the participation of Palestinians who are on record as being prepared to coexist with the state of Israel, are committed to peaceful negotiations, can contribute to that objective and renounce the use of force.

“Palestinians are unlikely to come forward to negotiate with Israel without having the implicit or explicit endorsement of the Palestine Liberation Organization,” it added.

Israel and the United States both refuse to deal with the PLO.