The World - News from April 12, 1988

A U.N. official told the World Court in The Hague that the United States, as host country to the United Nations, is violating a 1947 agreement by trying to close the New York office of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Undersecretary General for Legal Affairs Carl-August Fleischauer asked the 15-judge panel to direct the United States to enter into binding arbitration to resolve the dispute. Although the PLO has permanent U.N. observer status, Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III ordered the PLO mission closed by March 21. When the PLO refused, the Justice Department filed suit in U.S. District Court in New York. The court ordered the office closed by Monday, but no action was taken to enforce the order.