King Hussein of Jordan has reportedly signaled Israel not to take seriously hard-line remarks he is making at the Arab summit in Amman this week, the Israeli news media reported Monday.
Hussein, in his speech at the opening of the summit Sunday, is reported to have exhorted the Arab states for unity against Iran and Israel, both of which he claimed had designs on Arab territory.
But according to Hadashot, Hussein sent a message to Foreign Minister Shimon Peres through a middleman recently, pledging to honor the arrangements they agreed to at a meeting in London last April. He stressed that he intends to continue to work to advance negotiations between Jordan and Israel under the auspices of an international conference, Hadashot reported.
The newspaper said circles close to Peres believe Hussein’s signals are in earnest and that the results of the Arab summit will not affect the agreements they reached. The assessment of the Foreign Ministry here is that even if the king makes statements critical of Israeli policy on the peace process and in the administered territories, he does not intend to disavow agreements reached so far on the peace process.
Haaretz reported that Hussein told British Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe at a meeting in Amman last week that the Arab summit would not change his stand on the issue of an international conference and would not cause him to renege on his agreements with Peres.
HUSSEIN FORCED TO ‘TOW THE LINE’
Sources in Jerusalem quoted by Haaretz believe that during the summit, Hussein will be forced to “tow the line” of the Arab consensus and to express support for the Soviet-Syrian idea that the Arab-Israeli dispute should be settled not through direct talks but rather at an international conference with the participation of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
Haaretz said it is believed Hussein will pay this price in exchange for passage of a meaningful resolution on the war in the Persian Gulf.
Meanwhile, a senior official at the British Foreign Office reportedly told the Israeli ambassador in London, Yehuda Avner, that Hussein has criticized the Reagan administration for failing to work aggressively enough to prevent a stalemate in the peace process.
Peres stated here Friday that “there is definitely a chance for an international (conference) opening, perhaps more than there was before.” He said that “from Jordan’s point of view, there is no chance of direct negotiations without an opening.”
A violent demonstration in the West Bank Sunday that greeted the summit opening in Amman, points to sharp divisions between pro Jordanian Palestinians and die-hard supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
TWO PALESTINIAN POSITIONS
Both camps have circulated petitions to be conveyed to the Arab leaders at the summit. According to some sources, the pro-Jordanian petition has already reached Amman. It is said to emphasize the common destiny of both banks of the Jordan River, Jordan’s decisive role in a solution of the Palestinian problem and the need for a political federative solution between Jordan and a Palestinian entity.
It declares, however, that the PLO is the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.
The other petition, signed by scores of PLO supporters and figures identified with the Left in the administered territories, was published Sunday in East Jerusalem Arabic newspapers identified with the PLO.
It calls for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state under PLO leadership and condemns any attempt to deny the PLO’s status as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.
The published document furthermore censures the “division of authority” between Israel and Jordan for administration of the territories. It denounces the Jordanian five-year plan to improve living conditions in the territories as a plot to create an alternative leadership to the PLO It also sharply condemns the United States.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
