Secretary of State James Baker assured a group of senators Thursday that any public identification with the Palestine Liberation Organization by Palestinian delegates to the Middle East conference in Madrid would violate conditions set for the peace talks.
During a briefing at the Capitol on the upcoming conference, Baker also promised the senators that no matter what happens in Madrid, the Bush administration will not seek a further delay in congressional consideration of Israel’s request for U.S. guarantees covering $10 billion in loans needed for immigrant resettlement.
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) said the senators told Baker there is “significant apprehension” on Capitol Hill about the number of “PLO-affiliated folk” going to Madrid.
The Palestinians have named a 14-member negotiating team plus a six-member advisory panel, which is expected to act as a liaison between the negotiators and the PLO leadership in Tunis.
Baker gave the senators the sense “that he is letting the parties work out things,” Lautenberg told reporters. But the secretary stressed that any “overt displays of PLO affiliation would clearly violate the rules.”
Baker said the United States would understand if Israel left the conference, as it has threatened to do, if the Palestinian delegates announced that they represent the PLO.
While Baker did not give the senators any sense whether he expected the conference to succeed, he said it could last “a matter of months,” Sen. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) reported. But he said Baker warned that the process “could break down much faster than it was put together.”
On the loan guarantees, Baker said he would honor an agreement struck with key members of Congress in September not to ask for a delay beyond “early 1992,” even if the administration did not necessarily support legislation authorizing the guarantees, said Sen. Alfonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.).
“The loan guarantee and our agreement with the Congress are there, and that’s on target,” Baker was quoted as saying.
SYRIAN SUPPORT FOR TERRORISM RAISED
Congress agreed to delay voting on the loan guarantees until January, after President Bush threatened to veto any legislation before then.
But without taking any action, the Senate formally introduced the legislation with 70-cosponsors, thereby putting Bush on notice that there were enough votes to override a veto should it come to that.
Israel needs the guaranteed loans to help absorb hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have arrived from the Soviet Union and Ethiopia.
During the meeting with Baker, D’Amato also raised concerns that Syria was being given too many benefits to induce it to participate in the Madrid talks.
Baker replied that Syria “is a necessary player” in the peace talks, but would receive no additional U.S. benefits for having agreed to take part, the senator said.
Meanwhile, D’Amato and Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.) introduced a sense-of-the Senate resolution Thursday urging that Syria renounce and end all support of terrorism at the peace conference.
The resolution also urged the United States to press discussions in Madrid about Syrian-sponsored terrorism.
“The blood of untold innocent civilians is on the hands of Hafez Assad,” the Syrian president, said D’Amato.
“If he cannot clearly and forthrightly end his support for terrorism, then the United States has no business dealing with Syria any further,” he added.
A similar resolution was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Edward Feighan (D-Ohio).
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