The Reagan administration is expected to order the closing of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Permanent Observer Mission at the United Nations after Secretary of State George Shultz returns from the Middle East this weekend.
The decision for closure was made at a White House meeting last Friday, but the announcement was delayed at Shultz’s insistence so as not to interfere with his diplomatic mission, well-placed Washington sources told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Thursday.
The administration has denied a decision was made. “We have not made our decision,” State Department spokesperson Phyllis Oakley said Thursday.
A similar denial was made Wednesday by Herbert Okun, the U.S. deputy ambassador to the United Nations, as the U.N. General Assembly was voting 143-1 to condemn any U.S. closing of the mission as a violation of the 1947 U.N. Headquarters Agreement. The General Assembly also called for international mediation of the issue.
The White House meeting last Friday was attended by Lt. Col. Colin Powell, President Reagan’s national security adviser, as well as representatives of the State and Justice departments, according to one of the sources.
At that meeting, the administration decide to seek an injunction soon in the U.S. District Court for New York to stop the office from operating.
The United States traditionally opposes international mediation of domestic issues, a position declared in the so-called reservations clauses added by the Senate during ratification of the 1947 U.N. treaty and to the treaty establishing the International Court of Justice at the Hague in the late 1940s.
The controversy surrounding the PLO mission stems from the State Department’s 1988 Authorization Bill, which orders the mission closed by March 21.
While Congress and the administration agreed on the issue of closing the PLO’s Washington office, following the State Department’s Sept. 15 order that closed the mission Dec. 2, 1987 the State Department opposed closing the U.N. mission because of possible U.S. obligations under the 1947 U.N. Headquarters Agreement.
That treaty provides protection for free entry and transit of foreign officials posted to the United Nations, but the treaty’s reservations clause allows the United States to control the flow of “aliens” into this country.
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.
