Arab League Official Told the Eec Will Treat Arab-israel Conflict As a Top Priority Issue

Chedli Klibi, secretary general of the Arab League, was assured by West German government officials here that the European Economic Community (EEC) will treat the Arab-Israeli conflict as one of its main foreign policy priorities in the next six months.

But Klibi, who is from Tunisia, failed to get assurances that the EEC will officially recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization and support the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state, independent of Jordan. Klibi sought such a commitment here in view of the fact that West Germany, as of January I, assumed the rotating chairmanship of the EEC Council of Ministers, thereby giving Bonn additional influence in European politics.

The Arab League official’s visit came against a background of complaints by Arab ambassadors that the Christian Democratic government of Chancellor Helmut Kohl was leaning toward Israel and away from the pro-Arab positions of its predecessor Social Democratic government headed by Chancellor Helmut Schmidt.

ISRAEL’S SETTLEMENT POLICIES ATTACKED

Possibly in response to those complaints, Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher, who held the same office in the Schmidt government, pointedly attacked Israel’s settlement policies in the occupied Arab territories during Klibi’s visit. It was the first such attack since Kohl’s government took office last year.

Kohl also reportedly told his guest that Bonn remains fully committed to common European policies on the Middle East, including the June, 1980 Venice declaration which the Christian Democratic Party and Kohl personally had originally rejected. The Venice Declaration called for the association of the Palestine Liberation Organization in the Middle East peace process.

But diplomatic circles here made it clear that Bonn would not go as far as the Parliament of Europe did last week when it endorsed a Palestinian state.