Briton Warns of Danger in Israeli Policy

Britain’s foreign secretary said today that Israel was playing into Iraqi hands by rebuffing a U.N. inquiry into the Temple Mount killings.

Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd said he has not succeeded in persuading Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Foreign Minister David Levy to accept the U.N. delegation.

“I think that Saddam Hussein would be very pleased if the Security Council now stopped concentrating on Kuwait and began to concentrate on Arab-Israel,” Hurd told reporters, referring to Iraq’s 12-week-long occupation of Kuwait.

“And that is why I’m anxious that the government of Israel should find some way of receiving . . . the secretary-general’s mission,” he said.

Hurd also criticized the Palestine Liberation Organization for supporting the Iraqi president, saying the action set back chances for a Palestinian dialogue with the Israelis. “I think the PLO has made a serious mistake in this respect,” he said.

The foreign secretary said he did not see a chance for progress in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict until the Persian Gulf crisis was resolved. He suggested, however, that once Hussein was out of Kuwait, there would be greater pressure on Israel to accept compromises.

“We need to prevent Saddam Hussein from strutting up and down as if he was the only person who remembered the Palestinians,” Hurd said.

He said he was very disappointed that Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip refused to attend a scheduled meeting with him today.

The Palestinians said they were angered by statements attributed to Hurd in the Israeli media that Britain ruled out a role for the PLO in peace talks and opposed creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Hurd said remarks he made in private meetings with members of the Israeli Parliament were misquoted.