U.S., PLO Hold Talks, Express Peace Hopes : 1st Official Meeting in 13 Years ‘Characterized by Seriousness of Purpose,’ American Envoy Says

Representatives of the United States and the Palestine Liberation Organization met officially for the first time in more than 13 years Friday, and both sides said they hope that their dialogue will lead to a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East.

The historic encounter, more significant for its symbolism than its substance at this early stage, began with a quip by the head of the U.S. delegation, Robert H. Pelletreau Jr., the American ambassador to Tunisia.

Seated at the center of a long rectangular table several feet away from an identical table where the PLO delegation sat, Pelletreau leaned forward and said, “We’re still too far apart.”

‘Constructive’ Talks

Both sides, using nearly identical language afterward, described the talks--made possible by PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s acceptance of Israel and renunciation of terrorism two days earlier--as “practical” and “constructive.”

No date was set for a follow-up meeting, but PLO Executive Committee member Yasser Abed-Rabho, head of the Palestinian delegation, said he thought a second round of talks would be held within the coming weeks.

“The next meeting will not be too far away. It is not scheduled yet, but I don’t think it will take months. Maybe weeks,” he said.

Other officials close to the talks, briefing reporters on the condition that they be identified only as Western diplomats, said before the meeting began that the U.S. side was not ready to agree to a second meeting until the results of the first had been carefully assessed.

“Our discussions were practical and characterized, I would say, by seriousness of purpose,” Pelletreau said. “It is our hope that this dialogue, as it develops, will help bring about direct negotiations that will lead to a comprehensive peace.”

The diplomatic sources said before the meeting that Pelletreau, a 53-year-old career diplomat with extensive experience in the Middle East, planned to emphasize the issue of terrorism in what was otherwise to be a cautious, getting-to-know-you approach during the early stages of the new dialogue.

One senior official said the United States will stress to the PLO that it expects it to honor in a “prominent and pervasive” manner the pledge that Arafat made on Wednesday in Geneva, where he said that “we totally and absolutely renounce all forms of terrorism, including individual, group and state terrorism.”

But, alluding to radical Palestinian groups outside the PLO that oppose the peace process, the official added that the United States also understands that Arafat does not control all Palestinians and is not responsible for all acts of terrorism in the Middle East.

The official suggested that if one of the Syria- or Libya-based groups were to mount a terrorist attack in an effort to derail the peace process--a possibility that diplomats throughout the region consider extremely likely now--Washington would not hold the PLO responsible, provided it denounced and clearly dissociated itself from such actions.

Sources close to the talks said the two sides spent most of the time on formal presentations of each other’s general views on the Middle East peace process.

No real progress on narrowing substantive differences was expected and, judging from the statements issued afterward, little was made.

While Pelletreau stressed the U.S. desire to see its dialogue with the PLO develop into “direct negotiations” between Israel and its Arab adversaries, Abed-Rabho emphasized the Arab view that negotiations should take place only within the framework of a U.N.-sponsored international peace conference.

“We hope this dialogue will enable us to move closer to holding the international conference,” Abed-Rabho said. “We hope this dialogue will continue, because there is no other way except dialogue and negotiations to solve the problems of the world today,” he added.

13-Year-Old Ban Lifted

U.S. officials have cautioned that the dialogue, begun barely 48 hours after Secretary of State George P. Shultz lifted a 13-year-old American ban on direct contacts with the PLO, must not been seen by the Palestinians as an end in itself but only as the first step down what is still a long and difficult road to peace in the Middle East.

“We want the United States to put pressure on Israel to talk to us and to agree to the international conference, but we realize that this is going to be difficult and take time,” one Palestinian source said.

Nevertheless, the fact that the dialogue has begun means, in the Palestinian view, that the PLO has finally secured for itself an internationally accepted role in the peace process.

“The real significance of the U.S. decision to talk to the PLO is that it means that the search for alternative representatives for the Palestinians is over. The PLO has won its legitimacy now in everyone’s eyes save Israel’s,” an Arab diplomat said.

The new sense of optimism and success was magnified here in Tunis, where the PLO maintains its political headquarters, into an almost palpable sense of euphoria as the talks got under way.

PLO officials had laughed and showed their good spirits on the plane as they flew here from Geneva, where the U.S.-PLO agreement on opening the dialogue was finally secured through the help of intensive Egyptian and Swedish mediation efforts.

Then-Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger promised Israel in 1975 that Washington would have no dealings with the PLO until it recognized Israel’s right to exist and accepted U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 on the Mideast. In 1984, those conditions, plus a requirement that the PLO renounce terrorism, were written into U.S. law.

At the site of the meeting itself, a Moorish-style villa in the suburb of Carthage, miniature U.S. and Palestinian flags stood side by side on a marble-topped chest in the conference room, and bouquets of flowers bedecked the felt-topped negotiating tables where the delegations sat: Pelletreau and U.S. Embassy political counselor Edmond Hull on one side and Abed-Rabho, Executive Committee member Abdullah Hourani, political department director Abdellatif Hajleh and the PLO’s Tunis ambassador, Hakem Balawi, on the other.

Arafat himself was not in Tunis but was reported to be en route to Romania following talks in East Germany, where he flew Wednesday night after issuing the statement in Geneva that met the U.S. conditions for opening a dialogue with the PLO.

Pelletreau, ambassador to Tunisia since March, 1987, was designated by Shultz as the “only authorized channel” for the discussions with the PLO. This is not his first contact with the organization. One of the State Department’s most respected Arabists, Pelletreau was briefly taken hostage by Palestinian guerrillas while serving in Jordan during fighting between the PLO and the Jordanian army in 1970. Colleagues say he delights in telling the story of how he escaped by pretending to be a journalist.