Arab World Rejoices Over Shultz Move : Stronger Washington Role Expected in Push for Mideast Peace

The Arab world rejoiced Thursday over the Reagan Administration’s first step toward opening a “substantive dialogue” with the Palestine Liberation Organization.

As Washington’s ambassador to Tunisia held a brief telephone conversation Thursday morning with a PLO official at the organization’s Tunis headquarters, official spokesmen for the Arab nations were responding happily to the U.S. announcement Wednesday that after 13 years of trying to keep the PLO in isolation, the United States had decided to deal officially with it.

A spokesman for the Egyptian Foreign Ministry described the surprise announcement by Secretary of State George P. Shultz as “a positive development on the road to a comprehensive peace in the region.” Egypt is the only Arab country to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel.

Sees Better U.S.-Arab Ties

Osama Baz, a senior adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, predicted that the move “will lead to an improvement of ties between the American people and the Arab states.”

Chedli Klibi, secretary general of the Arab League, called the U.S. decision “a positive step consistent with the international community’s growing support for the political line of action pursued by the PLO.”

A Jordanian spokesman said the U.S. move will “open the road for the new U.S. Administration to assume its expected role in pushing forward the peace process to achieve a just and comprehensive settlement in the region.”

Arab nations and many other countries, including the Soviet Union, have long proposed that Jordan and the Palestinians form a confederated state and then put together a joint delegation to negotiate with Israel at an international conference. But such a conference has been opposed by Israel and the United States.

‘Pushing in Right Direction’

“The decision will affect the entire Arab world,” said Kamel abu Jaber, a political scientist at Jordan University. “There is now a sure hope that the partner and supporter of Israel is pushing Israel in the right direction.”

The American decision was praised by Arafat, who called it constructive, and the entire gamut of PLO officials who took part in last month’s conference of the Palestine National Council, the PLO’s legislature. “This is a great step by a great nation,” said Mohammed Milhelm, a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, speaking to reporters in Amman, Jordan.

Welcomed by Hard-Liners

“If the United States used its political weight,” said Sheik Abdulhamid Sayeh, Speaker of the Palestine National Council, “it could pressure Israel to achieve the interests of both the Israeli and Palestinian people and secure peace in the world.”

Even hard-liners such as George Habash, leader of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, welcomed the decision by Shultz.

There was no initial response from either Syria or Libya, which are both hard-line states that reject the idea of negotiating with Israel.

Concern Over Syria

One immediate concern voiced by many Arab officials was that the start of U.S.-PLO talks might spur Syria--a country that has been accused of sponsoring international terrorism--into trying to upset the process.

For example, there was concern that one of the more radical Syrian-sponsored Palestinian guerrilla factions opposed to Arafat’s leadership might stage a dramatic terrorist act in an effort to discredit the PLO.