Arabs to Give PLO Millions More to Fuel Israel Uprising : $100 Million Every Year, Sources Say

An Arab summit called to discuss the rebellion against Israeli rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip ended today with an agreement by oil-rich Persian Gulf states to give the PLO a massive subsidy to finance the 6-month-old uprising in the territories.

Sources close to the delegates said Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates agreed to “specific sums” that would be provided to the Palestine Liberation Organization for the uprising and to Syria and Jordan.

Chief PLO spokesman Bassam Abu Sharif told reporters that the Arab leaders agreed to keep the precise sums a secret to avoid showing their hand to the Israelis.

Estimate of $100 Million

But sources in other delegations at the summit said the amount may exceed $100 million a year.

The extra money will come under the existing Baghdad Agreement that already funds the PLO.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia and North Yemen called on the Arab states at the summit to take Egypt back into the Arab League but were rebuffed by the summit host, Algeria, officials said. The league expelled Egypt after it signed a peace accord with Israel in 1979.

In a communique issued at the end of the three-day summit, the 21 Arab League members again designated the PLO as the “sole legitimate representative” of the 5 million Palestinians.

They also agreed to oppose any peace initiative that excludes PLO participation and to demand an international peace conference giving equal status to all concerned parties, including the PLO.

Yasser Arafat, the PLO chairman, told the summit earlier in the week that the rebellion was costing his organization more than $50 million a month in relief, compensation for wages lost by strikers and medical expenses for injured rioters.

Requirements Reduced

Conference sources said the PLO agreed in preliminary discussions to reduce its annual requirements to $300 million to $400 million, but spokesmen for the oil-producing nations of the Persian Gulf said that still was too high.

Gulf nations will provide funds for the uprising through the PLO, Jordan and a PLO-Jordanian commission entrusted with Palestinian affairs, sources said.

They said the financial situation will be reviewed later, possibly at the next regular Arab summit, scheduled for November in Saudi Arabia.

The PLO, Syria and Jordan were expected to get some short-term aid for their own use, but the gulf nations avoided a long-term financial commitment. They cited chaos in oil markets that endangered their main source of revenue.

At a 1978 Arab summit in Iraq, oil states promised the PLO and nations confronting Israel a subsidy of $3 billion spread over 10 years. King Hussein of Jordan said in a speech Wednesday that he had received only about half the money. Syria and the PLO have also complained about unfulfilled promises.

There was no mention of Egypt during the first two days of the summit, but Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al Faisal raised the issue late Wednesday.

Diplomatic Ties Restored

He argued that since a majority of the Arab nations have restored diplomatic ties with Egypt, it was “counterproductive” to keep the largest and most powerful Arab nation outside the Arab League.

Summit delegates said Algeria and the moderate pro-Egyptian majority in the 21-member league reached a compromise that would pave the way for Egypt’s possible readmission to the league at its November summit.

But Libya and Syria maintained their opposition to Egypt’s readmission, the sources said.

After intense backstage discussions, Algeria and Saudi Arabia agreed to postpone the issue until the Riyadh summit, they said.