The State Department continued to maintain Thursday that it had not made any decision whether to allow Yasir Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, to enter the United States in order to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
“We will severely scrutinize any application for a visa in light of applicable law and other regulations and other pertinent circumstances,” said Charles Redman, the department spokesman.
In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering that admitting Arafat would encourage his terrorist organization and damage hope for Middle East peace, according to a statement released by Shamir’s office Thursday afternoon.
In New York meanwhile, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said late Thursday that it has “not at this moment taken a position on the visa.”
A spokesman for the conference, a coalition of 48 national Jewish organizations, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that they will be “in consultation with the United Nations, the State Department and other officials” while they ponder their own decision on the matter.
NOT A HEAD OF STATE
The conference, however, has already urged the United Nations not to invite Arafat to address the General Assembly, as the PLO chief has requested.
“This request must be denied,” conference Chairman Morris Abram declared in a statement Wednesday.
He pointed out that Arafat is not a head of state but leads an organization which the United States has formally declared to be terrorist.
Redman said that the United Nations has asked the United States “to facilitate the issuance of a visa to Arafat.”
But he stressed that the State Department does not have as yet an application for a visa.
This appears to contradict a statement by the United Nations Wednesday that it presented a visa application for Arafat and his party of advisers and bodyguards to Herbert Okun, the deputy U.S. representative to the United Nations.
Secretary of State George Shultz, in a letter last week to 51 senators who wrote him urging that Arafat be denied a visa, also did not reveal what the State Department would do.
But he stressed that he has “no desire whatever to see Arafat in the United States.”
Redman said he would not describe either the “applicable law and other regulations” or the “pertinent circumstances” that would affect the decision on a visa request by Arafat.
Under the 1947 U.N. Headquarters Agreement, the United States must admit anyone coming to the United Nations on official business.
Arafat reportedly wants to come to the United Nations to participate in the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People Nov. 29 and to address the General Assembly.
Reagan administration officials have maintained that the United States can bar persons coming to the United Nations if they present a security threat to the country.
But Redman cautioned against looking into past actions by the United States denying or granting visas, as a guide to a decision on Arafat.
The PLO leader was allowed to enter the United States to address the General Assembly in 1974, which he did with a revolver strapped to his side.
“All these are different cases,” Redman said. “The historical record might or might not be applicable.”
Redman would not confirm that a decision on a visa for Arafat depends on what happens on the meeting of the Palestine National Council in Algiers this weekend.
The council, the PLO’s policy-making body, is expected to declare an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
While the Reagan administration opposes a separate Palestinian state, it might look more favorably on Arafat’s visa request if the council also renounces terrorism and recognizes the State of Israel.
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.
