PLO Rejects Israel’s Plan for Territories : Shamir Interim Proposal Reportedly Involves Egypt, Jordan

The PLO’s executive committee today rejected a reported Israeli plan to grant limited autonomy to Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and allow them to elect their own representatives.

The 15-member ruling body of the Palestine Liberation Organization, meeting in Baghdad, Iraq, called the idea a “new maneuver aimed at diverting world attention away from Palestinian peace overtures.”

On Monday, the Israeli daily Maariv said Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir planned to propose an Egyptian role in getting negotiations started between Israel and a joint delegation of Palestinians and representatives from Jordan.

The aim of such talks would be to reach an interim agreement for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza, the newspaper said.

Shamir said on Israel radio he would present his plans for peace talks “soon, very soon.”

PLO leader Yasser Arafat today welcomed the resumption of contacts between the PLO and the United States but criticized Washington’s “unlimited support” for Israel and Shamir’s reported ideas for Middle East peace.

“America is one of the two superpowers and a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council . . . and nothing can be done without its approval,” Arafat told a Baghdad news conference.

“Basically, we are not facing Israel. . . . We are facing the unlimited support it is getting from its strategic ally, the United States,” Arafat said after a ceremony in which he laid the cornerstone for a Palestinian Embassy in Baghdad.

Arafat also attacked a proposal by Shamir for Palestinian elections in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip and prospects for the new Middle East peace plan.

“Shamir must understand he cannot create a beautiful bride from a monkey. . . . He can neither beautify Camp David nor (Palestinian) autonomy,” he said.

In Cairo today, a Cabinet minister said Egypt wants Israel to agree to talk to the PLO before President Hosni Mubarak will visit the Jewish state.

Butros Butros Ghali, minister of state for foreign affairs and Egypt’s second-ranking diplomat, set the condition today in a statement to reporters.

But Shamir said in Jerusalem that Israel would accept no conditions for a visit by Mubarak.

Foreign Minister Moshe Arens, trying to draw Jordan into a Middle East peace initiative, sent King Hussein a message today through U.S. Sen. John D. (Jay) Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), saying Israel considers Amman an important negotiating partner.

Meanwhile today, Israeli troops shot and wounded 16 Palestinians in clashes in the occupied lands, including a teen-ager who was in critical condition with a bullet wound in the left eye, Arab hospital officials said.