PLO Delays Bid for Higher U.N. Status

Bowing to intense U.S. pressure and the urging of friends including the Soviet Union, the Palestine Liberation Organization agreed not to press for a vote Monday on a resolution that would enhance its U.N. status.

Its U.N. observer, Zehdi Labib Terzi, told reporters, “We are not pushing for a vote this afternoon.”

He declined to say how long the deferment will extend. But many delegates said no vote is expected before the General Assembly adjourns by the middle of the month.

The PLO’s demand to be called the “State of Palestine” was backed by all Arab countries except for Egypt and Morocco.

But Washington has threatened to withhold its 25% share of the U.N.’s annual $850-million budget if the PLO is upgraded from an observer organization to that of an observer state, putting it on the same level as North and South Korea, Switzerland and the Vatican.

The United States and other Western countries say the state proclaimed by the Palestine National Council in Algiers in November, 1988, lacks many of the legal attributes of statehood, including control of territory and population and an effective government.