Soviets, Egypt Ask PLO to Save U.S. Talks, Baker Says

The foreign ministers of at least seven nations, including Egypt and the Soviet Union, have agreed to call on the Palestine Liberation Organization to save its dialogue with the United States by repudiating and punishing the perpetrator of an abortive terrorist attack on Israeli beaches, Secretary of State James A. Baker III said Tuesday.

Baker told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he has not yet decided whether to break off contact with the PLO over the May 30 attack on crowded beaches near Tel Aviv by the Palestine Liberation Front, a PLO splinter group.

But he said that “an extraordinarily large number of our allies and friendly governments” have warned that suspending the dialogue would damage the prospects for Middle East peace. Baker said he agreed that the U.S.-PLO contact, now in its 18th month, “has important implications for the Arab-Israeli peace process.”

He said that he discussed the matter last week in Europe with the foreign ministers of Britain, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Turkey and the Soviet Union and by telephone with the foreign minister of Egypt.

“Each and every one of these ministers responded by saying that they would go to the PLO and urge it to take steps to condemn the act and to disassociate from it,” Baker said.

Later in the day, President Bush told reporters that he raised the issue by telephone with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

“I want to see this terroristic act condemned,” Bush said.

All seven nations have maintained cordial relations with the PLO over the years and are thought to exert substantial influence over the organization. The Soviet Union has been the organization’s primary source of military equipment, and Egypt has sought to represent the PLO’s interests in talks with the United States and Israel.

Nevertheless, there is no guarantee that the PLO will follow their advice.

Shortly after the assault, which Israeli forces thwarted, leaving four attackers dead and 12 in custody, the Bush Administration said that it would have to break off the talks unless the PLO unambiguously condemned the raid and took steps to punish PLF leader Abul Abbas, who claimed responsibility for the action. Abbas is a member of the PLO’s executive committee.

“To date, the PLO’s public and private responses have fallen short of the mark,” Baker said. “The PLO official statements have disassociated the PLO from the May 30 attack, but neither the May 31 statement in Baghdad issued after the executive committee meeting, nor (Monday’s) statement condemned the PLF attack in its own right. And moreover, they gave no indication that the PLO intends to begin to take steps to discipline Abul Abbas.”

The Israeli government and its American supporters, who have opposed the U.S.-PLO dialogue since its inception in December, 1988, cited the attack as proof that the PLO is not keeping its commitment to give up use of terrorism.