The General Assembly voted 148 to 2 Wednesday for a resolution deploring the U.S. order to close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s observer mission to the United Nations.
Only the United States and Israel voted against the resolution. There were no abstentions.
The vote comes a day after U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani filed a complaint in federal district court in Manhattan against the PLO’s refusal to comply with a U.S. Justice Department order to close and vacate its observer mission office by March 21.
The PLO representative, Zehdi Terzi, was served with a summons Tuesday giving the PLO 20 days to appear in court to answer the complaint. Terzi said Wednesday that the PLO “will not disregard the summons.”
The resolution was the second this month condemning the United States action against the PLO observer mission. It deplored what it said was the U.S. failure “to comply with its obligations under the Headquarters Agreement,” which established in 1947 the legal relationship between the United Nations and the United States, the host country.
The resolution also called on the U.N. secretary general to take adequate legal action to prevent closure of the PLO mission. It would require him to invoke the arbitration machinery provided for under the Headquarters Agreement to resolve disputes with the host country.
The United Nations announced it has retained Keith Highet, president of the American Society of International Lawyers, to work on a possible U.N. response to the suit against the PLO. The PLO reportedly will be represented by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark in its legal battle with the Justice Department.
The Justice Department suit against the PLO cites the U.S. Anti-Terrorism Act of 1987.
U.S. Ambassador Herbert Okun explained to the General Assembly before the vote Wednesday that the American legal system obliged the attorney general to move to close the PLO mission. But he added that it provides the PLO every opportunity to raise relevant legal defenses before final action is taken.
Until the courts determine whether the law requires closure of the PLO observer mission, Okun said, the United States contends it is premature to consider arbitration.
He said the United States will take no further steps to close the PLO office until the court decides on the attorney general’s right to order closure under the act.
Israeli Ambassador Johanan Bein told the General Assembly before the vote that “the real question before the General Assembly is the integrity of this organization.”
Calling the PLO “the principal terrorist organization of our time,” Bein claimed it could not invoke the U.N. Charter for protection because its “own avowed principles contradict that very charter.”
Terzi of the PLO denounced the American move. He charged the United States wants to create “more Palestinian refugees. They want to throw us into the street,” he said.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague is expected to meet April 11 to consider the closure order. A resolution adopted by the General Assembly on March 2 requested an advisory opinion from the World Court.
Diplomats here pointed out that the opinion would not be binding.
The General Assembly is expected to discuss the observer mission issue one more time before April II, which also is the deadline for the PLO to appear in federal district court here.
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