The United States has welcomed the Israeli Knesset’s vote this week to repeal a ban on contacts with the Palestine Liberation Organization, but says the move will have not have any immediate effect on U.S. policy.
“There has been no change in our policy as regards the PLO,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday during his first briefing for the Clinton administration.
That will likely come as good news to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was known to be concerned that the Knesset action would prompt the United States to resume its dialogue with the PLO or support calls for the organization to play a more direct role in the Middle East peace talks.
The United States has in the past promised not to ask Israel to negotiate with the PLO.
The U.S. government began low-level diplomatic contacts with the PLO in December 1988, after it recognized Israel’s right to exist and publicly renounced terrorism. But the dialogue was suspended in June 1990, after the PLO failed to condemn an attempted terrorist attack on Israel staged by one of its factions.
When asked if Washington was now considering reopening the dialogue, Boucher said, “I wouldn’t put it that way, no.”
He added: “There has been no change in our policy regarding the suspension of the U.S. dialogue with the PLO.”
When asked if the PLO had met a series of conditions the United States had laid out two years ago for resuming the dialogue, Boucher said he had not “reviewed the present situation” to see which of the conditions apply.
But he reiterated that “there’s been no change in our policy regarding the dialogue, and that’s where we are today.”
NO TRAVEL PLANS YET
Earlier in the day Secretary of State Warren Christopher was quoted as telling reporters that Israel’s lifting of the ban on contacts with the PLO is a “positive development that might be conducive to moving forward” on the peace talks.
Progress on setting a date for a new round of peace talks has been stalled over the issue of Israel’s deportation last month of more than 400 Palestinians to Lebanon.
Boucher said the United States continues “to believe in the importance of the talks” and urges the parties involved to “take them up again and continue with their discussions.”
“Our position is that the parties really should focus their attention on the essential issues” that are being discussed in the bilateral talks “and not allow themselves to be diverted into other issues,” he said.
Boucher said the United States had talked to the Israelis, the Lebanese and other governments “about this situation there, and we think it’s something that needs to be resolved.”
There had been reports this week that Christopher was considering making a trip to the Middle East in February to inject new momentum into the peace talks.
When questioned about this, the new secretary told reporters he had “given a little thought to that” but was not ready to announce a trip.
“I’m afraid there is a certain inevitability about that,” he said. But he added, “I wouldn’t pack my bags until late February at least.”
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