U.N. Vote Assails U.S. for Barring Arafat : Count Is 151-2 With Only Israel in Support and Britain Abstaining

By a lopsided vote in which only Israel supported the United States, the General Assembly on Wednesday voted to denounce Washington’s refusal to grant an entry visa to Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat and urged reconsideration and reversal of the decision.

The resolution, passed 151 to 2, asked Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar to report on the results of the appeal today, despite Secretary of State George P. Shultz’s declaration Tuesday that he will not change his stand. Shultz’s action, taken against the advice of his senior staff, aroused a storm of Arab protest and elicited only silence, if not criticism, from normally sympathetic allies.

Although the Western European nations frequently abstain when Washington incurs the wrath of the majority of member states here, Tuesday’s ballot found only Britain in the abstention column.

Clovis Maksoud, secretary general of the League of Arab States, has led a campaign in behalf of the PLO’s legitimacy since the Reagan Administration sought an injunction last March to close the guerrilla group’s 13-year-old observer mission here.

Earlier, the State Department won a legal battle to close a PLO information center in Washington, but a New York federal district judge held the U.N. mission to be legitimate under the 1947 headquarters agreement between Washington and the United Nations. The agreement guarantees access for officials of both member states and observer groups, but Shultz ruled that Arafat’s association with terrorists overrode his right of access to the United Nations.

Shift to Geneva

Arafat wanted to address delegates at the annual General Assembly debate on the Palestinian issue. Maksoud told journalists Tuesday he is confident that almost the same number of votes that censured the United States would support a resolution shifting the Assembly session to the United Nations’ European headquarters in Geneva, where Arafat would be welcome. That measure could be introduced as early as today.

The Arab nations are expected to ask that the Palestinian debate, originally set to begin today, be rescheduled for Dec. 13-16 in Geneva. But Assembly President Dante Caputo, the Argentine foreign minister, who is presiding over this year’s session, said in an interview that the proposed change of venue would require a review of costs before it can be voted on.

“The earliest decision by the Assembly would be Monday, I think,” Caputo said.

Caputo explained that the advisory committee on administrative and budgetary questions, an internal auditing group, must make a study of the cost of carrying out the resolution.

Most U.N. member nations maintain missions in Geneva, although not as large as those in New York. Similarly, a support staff is available for the conduct of meetings by groups such as the Economic and Social Affairs Council, which meets there annually.

Geneva-based agencies like the World Health Organization and the International Labor Organization also have on their payrolls experienced administrative personnel who could be borrowed for a special session, making the Swiss city the most economical location.

No official estimates have been made for the travel costs of key staff members who would have to travel from New York, but U.N. employees who spoke on condition that they be unidentified said the total bill could range from $500,000 to $1 million--an important sum for an organization already financially strapped. Member states would be expected to pay for transportation of their own delegations.