British and Arab Politicians Accuse Each Other over Cancellation of the Meeting Between Howe and PLO

British and Arab politicians were plunged in welter of mutual recrimination today over the responsibility for the cancellation of yesterday’s meeting between Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe and two leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Mohammed Milhem, former mayor of Halhoul, and exiled Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Elias Khoury.

At the same time, a new row broke out over a meeting last night between Khoury and Dr. Robert Runcie, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Yesterday the Foreign Office accused the PLO representatives of refusing to endorse a statement recognizing the State of Israel and renouncing violence in accordance with assurances last week that they would do so.

The PLO answered by accusing Britain of introducing new conditions into the document, but the Jordanian government, through whom these delicate prior negotiations had taken place, sided with Britain and blamed the PLO for the collapse of the mission. (Related story, P. I.)

SUPPORT FOR PLO VERSION

However, inside Britain the PLO version was supported by the Rev. Terry Waite, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s representative, and by Denis Healey, foreign affairs spokesman of the opposition Labor Party. They said the Palestinians were prepared to renounce violence but could not agree to sign a statement recognizing the right of Israel to exist.

Waite said Khoury, who last night spent an hour with the Archbishop of Canterbury, was absolutely adamant in his condemnation of violence. He sat on the PLO executive in order to exercise moderation and had put his life in danger by agreeing to meet Sir Geoffrey, Waite said.

Healey said the PLO visitors were prepared to sign a document in the words that Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher used when she announced the visit a few weeks ago, but they were told they had to include also a specific and explicit reference to recognizing the State of Israel. After the Israeli bombing of the PLO headquarters in Tunis they were not prepared to do that, Healey said.

PLO VERSION DISPUTED

Government circles, however, replied that the terms of statement had been agreed to in talkswith the Jordanian Prime Minister down to the last dot and comma. The two PLO officials were under pressure from their hard-liners. “We kept our nerve. They didn’t,” said one source.

After the cancellation of the talks, Howe said:

“The two Palestinian names were put forward on the understanding that they backed the peaceful settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute on the basis of relevant United Nations resolutions, and were opposed to terrorism and violence. We received unambiguous assurances that Bishop Khoury and Mr. Milhem would make this clear publicly during their stay in London.”

While the political ranks of Britain and the Arab world were divided over the affair, Israel and the Jewish community here were remarkably united.

This was evident at a mass rally in London last night, embracing a wide spectrum of Jewish and Zionist organizations. The main speaker, Israeli Communications Minister Amnon Rubenstein, denounced international terrorism as a contagious disease which spreads from one country to another.

“It could not do so,” he said, “without the shelter it received from sovereign Arab governments as well as the gullibility of the West, which had helped to bestow on it international status.”

In a careful allusion to the British government, Rubenstein said he respected and even admired people of good intentions, who would like to see peace in the Middle East. But the events of the last few days had demonstrated that peace and the PLO did not go together.

Rubenstein reserved his most scornful words for Western media’s magic search for words which would indicate that the PLO really had espoused moderation. “All they needed to pronounce were the three words used by the late President (Anwar) Sadat: ‘No more war’, ” he said.

Israeli Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, interviewed on Channel Four Television News last night, said that Britain’s cancellation of talks with the PLO officials meant that it might be coming back on the right track in its attitude toward the Mideast. He described the PLO as an obstacle to peace and said the Western world and Britain must stop giving the PLO prestige among the Palestinian Arabs. “We want direct negotiations with Arab countries and the Palestinian Arabs, but never with terrorists who are not interested in peace,” Shamir said.