King Hussein of Jordan today invited PLO Chief Yasir Arafat to Amman, saying he will “always be welcome in Jordan.” Hussein, as if to stress his new relationship with the PLO, spent his first day in Paris in close consultations with PLO representatives.
He lunched with the head of the foreign affairs commission of the Palestine National Council, Khaled el Hassan, and conferred with a number of other Palestinian leaders.
The monarch, who is to address the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday, met today with President Francois Mitterrand with whom he discussed at length recent developments in the Middle East and especially in Lebanon.
He later said Jordan and other moderate Arab states hope France and Europe will launch a diplomatic initiative to help reach a settlement in the Middle East. Hussein said “in view of the current East-West relations, such a French initiative is now more necessary than ever before.”
Khaled el Hassan is reportedly pressing the French to supply the naval protection demanded by the Greek government in order to go ahead and supply the ships needed for the evacuation of Arafat and his men from Tripoli. El Hassan met with Mitterrand’s special adviser for diplomatic affairs, Hubert Verdine, as well as with various Quai d’Orsay officials.
He is reported to have urged the French to grant Greece the naval protection it demands without any further delay. He is reported as having said that “time is now a question of life and death.” He also claimed Israel is about to launch a new attack on Tripoli where Arafat and 4,000 of his men are trapped.
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