Palestinians, Shamir in Twin Blow Reject Baker’s Mideast Plan

Leaders of the Palestinian uprising in the occupied territories and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir on Sunday dealt a double blow to U.S. efforts to bring about Israeli-Palestinian peace talks by rejecting a plan offered by Secretary of State James A. Baker III.

In Baghdad, Iraq, Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat on Sunday insisted on guarantees that any elections in the territories would have to be impartial, according to a Palestinian spokesman.

“The election process should be part of a comprehensive plan to find a just settlement for the Palestinian problem, taking into consideration the right of the Palestinian people for self-determination . . . and the establishment of its independent state,” Arafat, who opened a meeting of the PLO’s 108-member Central Council, was quoted as saying.

Baker’s peace plan, which he proposed last week, was designed to bring about a meeting in Cairo of the Israeli and Egyptian foreign ministers as a first step. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak had urged the meeting as a way to revive Israel’s stalled peace initiative, which calls for elections among Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to pick delegates to negotiate with Israel on interim self-rule.

But the underground leadership of the 22-month-old uprising urged Palestinians to “reject the suspicious American role, foremost of which is the five-point proposal of (Secretary of State) James Baker.”

Shamir on Sunday told the Israeli newspaper Maariv that there was no need for talks in Cairo at all, since Israel would only talk to Palestinians from the occupied territories and would not let the PLO play any role.