Likud’s Terms Make Peace More Elusive, Baker Says

Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Friday that tough terms set by Israel’s ruling Likud Party for Palestinian elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip would make it more difficult to move toward peace in the Middle East.

“In our judgment, the Likud resolutions are not helpful,” Baker told reporters after a meeting in Brunei, a small, oil-rich nation on the north coast of Borneo, with Southeast Asian foreign ministers.

“Imposing restrictive conditions are . . . obviously going to make it more difficult to get negotiations, and we have urged all the parties to avoid this,” he said.

Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir bowed this week to pressure from Likud hard-liners and set restrictive terms on a proposal for Palestinian balloting in Israeli-occupied territories.

Shamir had originally proposed allowing Palestinians to choose delegates to negotiate self-rule.

But Wednesday he told the Likud central committee that Israel will never negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization, allow a Palestinian state or halt Jewish settlement in the territories.

Washington had praised Shamir’s original proposal as a move toward peace, but State Department officials traveling with Baker said the tough new position reduces the chances of drawing Palestinians into direct talks with Israel.

Middle East experts in Baker’s party said Thursday’s incident, in which an Arab seized the steering wheel of an Israeli bus and sent it over a precipice, killing 14 people, could reinforce hard-line sentiment in Israel and slow the peace process.

Baker, in Brunei for talks with the Assn. of South East Asian Nations, flew on to Oman.