Yasir Arafat’s recent visit to Moscow ended Sunday with a care fully worded “Tass” communique. It was a masterpiece of diplomatic ambiguity, maintaining several contradictory interpretations. This ambiguity indicates, perhaps, that the Russians are still hesitating whether to commit themselves to one, clearly defined, course of action on the Palestinian issue. They would not put a final seal to their tightening alliance with the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Arafat and his dozen colleagues were not too happy, perhaps, with this demonstration of Soviet prudence. However, they have no reason to complain: the Russians have made some really important practical steps towards them. Furthermore, in speeches and press articles Moscow has shown greater readiness to adopt PLO proposals than through the official “Tass” communique.
True, the PLO was not granted direct all-the-way diplomatic recognition. But a PLO “delegation” office will be opened in Moscow, and the Russians declared their intention to acquire a seat for the PLO at the Geneva peace table, on a basis of “equal rights” with the other participants.
The Russians limited their support for Palestinian “national legitimate rights” by a repeated emphasis on UN decisions (namely, Israel’s right of existence). Yet, the most significant point was the expression of Soviet support for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, to be controlled by the PLO.
PLO LEADERS ARE MOSCOW’S CHOICE
For the first time, leading Soviet personalities–such as the Communist Party’s “Foreign Minister” Boris Ponomarev and Izvestia’s editor-in-chief Tolkunov–explicitly declared that the PLO leaders and the Palestinian “bourgeois” circles–are Moscow’s choice to rule a Palestinian state. They also implied that Moscow may veto a return of the West Bank to Jordan in the framework of a federation or any other form. The “Tass” communique did not go that far, but it spoke of Soviet support for the PLO presentation of this plan in Geneva.
All this apparently amounts to what may be significantly summed up as a Soviet-backed alternative to the American vision of a Middle East solution. Whereas the core of Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s (and Israel’s) idea is a settlement for the Palestinians “via” Jordan, the Russians and their Arab clients aspire to keep King Hussein out of a Palestinian settlement.
In fact, this demand could mean an attempt to torpedo the whole process of negotiations. no less than an attempt to dictate the terms of settlement. It means a threat to the settlement prospects even more than a promise to protect Moscow’s Arab friends’ interests. Here is where Arafat’s visit takes greater, graver, dimensions. For this new alliance bears unmistakable implications for the general Soviet attitude to the problems of this region.
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