The United States is not prepared to break off its dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization, despite urging by Israel to do so.
Secretary of State James Baker indicated, however, that attacks on Israeli military or civilian targets, inside or outside of Israel, would deeply trouble the Bush administration.
The State Department apparently has decided that a clash between Israeli troops and Palestinian infiltrators a week ago did not fit that category.
The Israel Embassy in Washington appealed to the United States last Monday to break off contacts established with the PLO on Dec. 15 by former Secretary of State George Shultz.
The State Department remained non-committal over whether the incident breached the agreement reached with the PLO last year.
Baker, speaking to reporters Saturday aboard his Air Force jet, was making his first public comment on the issue. He said the department was still in the process of gathering information about the episode.
“And we are not prepared to say at this time that this constitutes an action by the PLO which would cause us to break off the dialogue.”
He added, “We made the point that actions such as this, directed against civilian or military targets inside or outside of Israel, was something that gave us trouble.”
The Israelis claimed the PLO violated its commitment to Shultz to renounce terrorism.
They cited what they said was an attempted terrorist infiltration of Israel last weekend by members of George Habash’s Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
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