U.S. Objects; Red Cross Cancels Talks

A major conference of the International Red Cross, which was to have begun Friday in Budapest, was canceled Wednesday because of U.S. objections to the seating of a delegation from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The board of the International Committee of the Red Cross blamed the United States for injecting politics into a meeting that was to have focused on humanitarian aid to victims of war and natural disasters. But American officials said Palestinian “intransigence” forced the cancellation.

U.S. officials, backed by European delegates, persuaded most of the nine-member Red Cross governing board that rather than admit the PLO, the board should cancel the meeting, held once every four or five years. It brings together several hundred delegates from nations that adhere to the 1949 Geneva Convention and representatives of Red Cross and Red Crescent relief societies. The Red Crescent is the Muslim version of the Red Cross.

The PLO has claimed statehood since 1988 and has demanded that it be seated on various international bodies. The United States has consistently rejected the statehood claim and has objected to any formal recognition of the PLO in international organizations.