Hussein, Assad Discuss West Bank Issue

King Hussein flew to Damascus on Monday and immediately began discussions with Syrian President Hafez Assad on Jordan’s break with the Israeli-held West Bank and peace efforts to end the Persian Gulf War.

The king was accompanied by Prime Minister Zaid Rifai on what was expected to be a one-day trip.

Jordan has backed Iraq in the gulf war but has stayed on good terms with Syria, which supports non-Arab Iran.

Meanwhile, Assistant Secretary of State Richard W. Murphy arrived in Jordan from Israel, where he had called on the government to step up efforts to talk with “moderate” Palestinian leaders and criticized military tactics being used to quell the eight-month-old Palestinian uprising in the Israeli-occupied territories.

‘Very Frank Exchange’

Murphy met with Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin for what he later told reporters was a “very frank exchange” on the Israeli policies of detention of Palestinian activists without trial, deportations and demolition of Palestinians’ houses.

“We don’t think they’re the way to go,” Murphy said. “We don’t agree with Israel on that.”

Murphy, whose tour has also taken him to Lebanon and Syria, made no statement on arrival at Amman airport.

Jordan is expected to tell Murphy that the decision Hussein announced July 31 to hand responsibility for the West Bank over to the Palestine Liberation Organization is final.

“Nothing that Mr. Murphy will bring will alter in any way or form the position that we have adopted,” the king told a news conference Sunday.

Murphy was expected to confer with Hussein and Rifai today before flying to Cairo, an embassy spokesman said. Diplomats expect him to explore the consequences of the Hashemite monarch’s historic decision to renounce his claim to sovereignty over the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in 1967.

Egyptian officials said Monday that they are trying to arrange a meeting between Murphy and prominent Palestinians when the U.S. envoy arrives late today.

Egyptians Mediating

“We are trying to facilitate a meeting, if both sides want it,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said. “So far, nothing has been arranged.”

Egyptian officials said they are trying to draw up a list of Palestinians acceptable to both the United States and the PLO.

Meanwhile, Israel said Monday that Palestinians have cut the number of their trips between Jordan and the West Bank in half because of fears that Amman would sever all links with the Israeli-occupied region.

Police Minister Chaim Bar-Lev said that Palestinians have been staying put on both sides of the Jordan River since Hussein’s government began weakening ties 10 days ago.

Bar-Lev on Monday toured the Allenby Bridge, which after 21 years of Israeli occupation still links the 850,000 Palestinians of the West Bank to their former ruler, Jordan.

“There is a decline in traffic, compared to the same period a year ago, to about 52% to 55%,” Bar-Lev told reporters.

‘Perplexed and Distressed’

“Residents of the West Bank are confused, perplexed, distressed and worried. They don’t want to find themselves on the other side suddenly and the bridges closed,” he said.

Bar-Lev, a member of the centrist Labor Alignment, said the Israeli government will resist right-wing demands to close the bridges between the West Bank and Jordan.

In an apparent effort to increase Palestinian confidence and the flow of traffic, the military announced Sunday that it was extending hours at the bridges and dropping a requirement that Palestinians prove they had paid their West Bank taxes before crossing.

Some Palestinians interviewed at Allenby Bridge said the drop in travel predated Hussein’s disengagement. They said Israel had barred residents of entire towns from crossing the bridge as punishment for violent anti-Israeli demonstrations.