Jordan Sees No Role in Shultz Plan for Talks

King Hussein of Jordan, stressing that there is no going back on his decision to sever his kingdom’s ties to the West Bank of the Jordan River, said Sunday that he no longer supports the U.S.-backed proposal for joint Jordanian-Palestinian participation at future Middle East peace talks.

“That option, as far as I am concerned at the moment, does not exist,” the king told reporters at a news conference called to explain the reasons behind his recent decision to cut Jordan’s legal and administrative links to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The notion of some kind of joint Jordanian-Palestinian representation at a proposed Middle East peace conference was a central part of the U.S. peace plan being pressed by Secretary of State George P. Shultz.

U.S. Envoy Expected

Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy, who is currently visiting the region in an attempt to revive the moribund U.S. initiative, is due in Amman today for talks with Hussein and senior Jordanian officials.

However, the king appeared to be serving notice to the U.S. envoy on the eve of his arrival that the pivotal part of the Shultz plan is now a dead issue as far as Jordan is concerned.

“Nothing that Mr. Murphy will bring can alter in any form or way the position that we have adopted,” Hussein said.

The idea of a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation was crucial to the international peace conference that Shultz has been trying to arrange as a way of circumventing Israeli objections to negotiating directly with the Palestine Liberation Organization. However, while Hussein said he had supported that proposal in the past, it “did not lead anywhere and is behind us now.”

Hussein reiterated his conviction that PLO participation is essential to any peace process but stressed that from now on, the PLO will have to represent itself.

He also said that Jordan supports proposals to form a Palestinian government-in-exile and would “immediately” recognize one if it were formed.

The Jordanian monarch, speaking from behind a large lacquered desk in one of the grand salons of his royal palace in the hills overlooking Amman, also made these points during the 90-minute news conference:

-- That Jordan is serious about disengaging itself from the West Bank, and there is no turning back from the recent decisions it has taken in that regard. “We are not playing at tactics,” the king said. “Our decision is something we will adhere to.”

-- That he is deeply disappointed in both the United States and Israel for the way in which they have allowed “opportunity after opportunity” for peace to slip by because of ineptness and a lack of courage and vision.

-- That Jordan, despite its pessimism, remains committed to the search for a “comprehensive, just and durable peace” in the Middle East and hopes the steps it has taken will facilitate that search by refocusing world attention on the Arab-Israeli dispute.

Cites Disillusionment

The king made it clear that his deepening disillusionment with the other key parties to the conflict--the PLO, Israel, the United States and his fellow Arab states--was a major factor behind his decision to disengage from the West Bank.

Over the past week, Jordan has given dismissal notices to most of the 23,000 civil servants, teachers and other people it employs in the West Bank, dismantled the ministry in charge of the occupied territories, canceled a $1.3-billion development plan for the territories and dissolved the lower house of Parliament, where West Bank deputies held half of the seats.

Hussein said Jordan will soon hold new elections for a solely East Bank Parliament and indicated that West Bank Palestinians who hold Jordanian passports will no longer be considered Jordanian citizens.

Will Keep Passports

However, he said the measures would stop there and that the nearly 1 million Palestinians in the West Bank will be allowed to keep their Jordanian passports as travel documents “until such time as a Palestinian state is created.”

Describing them as “lifelines to our brethren in the occupied territories,” the king also affirmed that the bridges across the Jordan River would remain open. “We have no intention of closing those bridges, nor has it crossed our minds to think of doing that,” he said.

Diplomats and other analysts interpret the decisions that Hussein has taken as an attempt to put pressure on the PLO to come to terms with Jordan over the concessions it feels the Palestinians must make to participate in the peace process. These include accepting Israel’s right to exist and agreeing, at least initially, to a confederation of the West Bank with Jordan as a more realistic negotiating position in peace talks with Israel.

Reconciliation Possible

While Hussein portrayed his decision to disengage from the West Bank as irrevocable, he also seemed careful not to rule out any options, and Jordanian officials said they do not exclude the possibility of an eventual reconciliation with the PLO.

“There are two kinds of divorce, one that is irrevocable and one that is not. This is the second kind,” a senior official said.

But he also indicated that a reconciliation could not take place in the near future. The PLO, which is sending a senior delegation to Amman this week to discuss the king’s decision, has “nothing to say to us right now,” he said.

Bitter Over U.S., Israel

Hussein, reflecting a deep sense of despair that seemed to pervade all his remarks, reserved his most bitter criticism for Israel and the United States.

“We see no signs to indicate that, even at the very highest levels, responsible elements (in Israel) are able to think beyond today to tomorrow. . . . They have succeeded only in losing opportunity after opportunity,” he said.

“Israel,” he added, “has as yet made no contribution to the cause of a just peace in this part of the world.”

As for the United States, Hussein said he had tried to encourage the Reagan Administration to be “more active, more involved in the cause of a just and durable peace in this area.”

However, he said he was deeply disappointed by the United States because “it has not lived up to the hopes of many in terms of its position in the world as a superpower and in terms of the influence it could have exerted” to bring about peace in the Middle East.