U.S. Changes Policy, Backs U.N. Observers for Gaza, West Bank

The State Department said today that the United States will support sending a U.N. team of observers to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip to report on the human rights situation.

The statement, by spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler, was described by her as a shift in the previously declared U.S. policy.

Last week, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said the United States “would be prepared to discuss” a U.N. delegation, without defining the size or mission of the group.

Tutwiler said today that U.S. support will be limited to a small delegation under the mandate of the U.N. Security Council or the secretary general, similar to the mission to Israel led by Marrack Goulding, a U.N. official, in January, 1988.

A spokesman for the Israeli government said Israel will oppose any U.N. presence as an infringement on Israeli sovereignty as an occupying power. A spokeswoman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington said she wants to study the Tutwiler statement before commenting on the new policy.

The U.N Security Council, back in New York after hearing a statement by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat, is expected to take up the matter later today.

Tutwiler also said the statements by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, in which he once again vowed to use chemical weapons against Israel in case of an Israeli attack.