Sen. George McGovern said after a meeting with Yasir Arafat that “American policy should take into serious consideration the question of recognizing the Palestine Liberation Organization, according to a report yesterday by the Palestinian news agency WAFA.
The Beirut newspaper An Nahar reported that the South Dakota Democrat who heads the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Near Eastern Affairs, and is currently on a fact-finding tour in Middle East countries, met with Arafat for 90 minutes last Friday at the Senator’s request. This marked the first meeting between a high-ranking American politician and the head of the PLO. An Nahar noted.
McGovern, who was the Democratic Party’s Presidential candidate in 1972, was quoted as saying that it was “imperative for some kind of Palestinian national entity to emerge because it is difficult to achieve stability in the area unless the Palestinians exercise an efficient political existence.” At the meeting at PLO headquarters, Arafat briefed McGovern on PLO policy and stressed the 1974 decision by the Arab summit meeting in Rabat recognizing the PLO as the sole representative of the Palestinian people, the press reports said.
Other sources said McGovern indicated after the meeting that he plans to draft a Middle East peace plan which, according to officials accompanying him, would be based on the establishment of relations between Israel and the Arab countries, the guarantee of a fair and lasting peace by recognizing the rights that must be accorded to the Palestinians, the pre-1967 borders and a solution of the problem of Jerusalem. McGovern arrived in Beirut last Wednesday and has visited Egypt and Saudi Arabia. He is scheduled to visit Jordan, Syria, Israel and Iran.
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