Foreign Minister Claude Cheysson conferred today with Farouk Kaddoumi, foreign affairs spokesman of the Palestine Liberation Organization. It was the new French Administration’s first meeting with a ranking PLO official.
French officials stressed that Kaddoumi was here on a “private trip” and noted that President Francois Mitterrand has made it clear that France does not recognize the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people. But Palestinian spokesmen have expressed the hope that France will play a more active role than in the past to extend West European recognition of the PLO.
Cheysson said in an interview published in Le Nouvel Observateur that Mitterrand plans to visit Israel “as soon as circumstances permit.” He added that France can maintain good relations with both sides in the Middle East conflict and thereby help further the achievement of peace.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
