State Department Affirms Its Support of Saunders’ Statement on the PLO

The State Department affirmed that it “stands on testimony given by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders to a subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee last week which is viewed in Israeli circles as indicating a possible shift of U.S. policy toward the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Department spokesman Robert Funseth told reporters yesterday that Saunders’ statement “represented only a re-statement” of U.S. policy and is not a change of position. He said he could not understand why the Israelis were disturbed by it. (See separate stories from Israel on Saunders’ statement.)

The Israeli Cabinet issued a statement at its weekly session Sunday saying that a transcript of Saunders’ remarks was replete with “errors and misrepresentations” and that Israel’s “reservations and qualifications” would be brought “in full” to the attention of the U.S. government.

SAUNDERS INDICATES CO-EXISTENCE POSSIBLE

According to the transcript made available here, Saunders, who is Second Deputy Assistant Secretary for Middle Eastern Affairs, told the International Relations Committee’s subcommittee on investigations

Saunders also said that “a particularly difficult aspect of the problem is the question of who negotiates for the Palestinians. It has been our belief that Jordan would be a logical negotiator for the Palestinian-related issue” but “the Rabat (Arab) Summit, however, recognized the Palestine Liberation Organization as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”

Israel’s view is understood to be that despite the Rabat decision, the U.S. position has not veered from having Jordan negotiate for the Palestinians. But Saunders’ use of the past tense when he said “it has been our belief that Jordan would be the logical negotiator” and his reminder to the Congressmen of the Rabat decision-apparently indicated to the Israelis that the U.S. no longer considers Jordan in that role.

Saunders concluded his prepared statement by saying that “We are prepared to consider any reasonable proposal from any quarter and we will expect other parties to the negotiations to be equally open-minded.” That was viewed in some quarters here and in Israel as a public call on Jerusalem to back off from its opposition to the PLO.

Saunders’ remark-that “co-existence” might be considered by the PLO was also regarded as contrary to the facts. The PLO has never spoken of co-existence but has insisted on the establishment of a “secular democratic state” embracing all of Palestine, including that part which is now the State of Israel.