Shultz to Try Again to End Mideast Stalemate : Return Mission to Region Announced After His Unprecedented Talks With 2 U.S. Palestinians

Secretary of State George P. Shultz will fly to Israel and four Arab nations next week in a renewed bid to break the stalemate over the U.S.-backed peace plan for the region, the State Department announced Saturday, stressing optimistically that “no one has said no” to Shultz’s blueprint yet.

The announcement came as Shultz held an unprecedented meeting with two Palestinian-American scholars who are members of the Palestine National Council, an organization the two described as the “legislative body” of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Shaken by Unrest

In the 90-minute session, held despite the strong protests of Israel, Edward W. Said and Ibrahim Abu Lughud said they conveyed the “urgent need” for Israel to lift its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which have been shaken by unrest for nearly 16 weeks. They said they also urged that any Middle East peace negotiations include a “legitimate representative” of the Palestinian people--an apparent reference to the PLO.

Consulted With Arafat

“I think it is clear that the United States government is not yet ready to accept the participation of the Palestine Liberation Organization at this time,” Said added, however. Shultz’s guests, though not members of the PLO, both said that they had consulted with PLO chairman Yasser Arafat by telephone after they had received the secretary of state’s invitation.

The controversial meeting at the State Department signaled Shultz’s resolve to bring Palestinians into the negotiations over the future of the Israeli-occupied territories. It was the closest U.S. officials have come to contact with the PLO on the peace process. This meeting along with the plans for the new trip also underscored Shultz’s belief that, as long as the parties in the Middle East conflict keep talking, a breakthrough is still possible.

Details of what he hopes to accomplish on his new Middle East mission were not disclosed, but his clear determination to press ahead with the U.S. initiative carries with it potential repercussions in the domestic politics of Israel, observers there said after the secretary’s plans were made public.

Israeli Split

The rightist Likud Bloc of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir in Jerusalem’s ideologically split government of “national unity” fiercely opposes key elements of the Shultz plan, while the center-left Labor Alignment of Foreign Minister Shimon Peres favors much of it. A deepening of that split could precipitate elections ahead of their scheduled November date, the observers said.

Shultz’s six-day visit, beginning April 3, will be his second to the region in slightly more than a month. On his previous visit, Israeli and Arab leaders voiced objections to a number of elements of his plan, but none rejected it outright.

The new mission will begin in Israel, where Shultz will arrive on the second day of Passover. He will then go to Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Egypt is the only nation that has embraced Shultz’s plan, which calls for, among things, a stage-setting international conference on Middle East issues and a phased-in process of limited Palestinian self-rule in the occupied territories.

“We’re intensely involved in this process and we’re going to continue to push forward to do everything we can,” said State Department spokesman Charles Redman. He said the renewed overture “will give us a chance to continue to do what it is we’ve been trying to do, which is to see if we can be helpful in getting this Middle East peace process under way.”

Redman said that Shultz decided Friday night to make the trip after conferring with the Administration’s special Middle East envoy, Philip C. Habib, who recently returned from the region.

The meeting with Said, a professor of English at Columbia University, and Abu Lughud, who is chairman of the political science department at Northwestern University, was the subject of strong criticism by Shamir and American Jewish leaders, who charged that the United States had violated a longstanding commitment.

For 13 years, Washington has observed a pledge not to negotiate with the PLO because the group has not officially recognized Israel’s right to exist and has participated in terrorism.

The State Department denied any change in policy, saying that the two professors are Americans and not actual members of the PLO.

“These are members of the Palestinian community, and that’s how we accept them,” said Redman. “They brought no message from Arafat. These gentlemen do not characterize themselves as PLO representatives,” Redman added.

Said and Abu Lughud, however, in comments after the session, said that the talk had “absolutely” raised the level of U.S.-Palestinian contacts.

‘Consistent’ With PLO

While saying that “we were not delegated by the PLO on this occasion,” Abu Lughud said their remarks were “consistent” with what Shultz would have heard from PLO representatives.

Said and Abu Lughud, who described themselves as “congressmen” for the Palestinian community, said they pressed Shultz to deal with the PLO, which Abu Lughud called the Palestinian people’s “legitimate representative . . . acknowledged the world over.”

However, Abu Lughud indicated that there may be a group of Palestinian representatives on which the parties to the conflict could agree. “The PLO may delegate the right to discuss (the future of the West Bank and Gaza Strip) to any group it considers credible,” he said.

A group of 15 Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza Strip were scheduled to meet with Shultz last month when he visited Jerusalem. But under pressure from the PLO, the group called off the meeting because Palestinians who are not residents of the occupied territories were excluded from participating in that meeting.

Israel has refused to negotiate with Palestinians living outside the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

‘Leaving the Door Open’

In Saturday’s talk, “we were interested in leaving the door open for the future” regarding meetings with Palestinian representatives, Said pointed out.

Shultz’s formula for Middle East peace calls for negotiations between Israel and a mixed delegation of Jordanians and Palestinians.

While Shultz’s invitation to the Palestinians provoked anger among some Jewish leaders, it was applauded by former President Jimmy Carter. Shultz “should have met with them long ago” to help advance the peace initiative, Carter said in an interview at a business luncheon in suburban Washington.

“We don’t have any obligation not to meet with Palestinian leaders,” the former president said. “The obligation we have is not to recognize the PLO officially and not to negotiate with the PLO. And Secretary Shultz is not violating any commitment.”