Political observers here attach no practical importance to the Arab League’s grant of full voting membership to the Palestine Liberation Organization. They said that conferring the status of a state on the PLO had no validity whatsoever in international law and predicted that any attempt to get the PLO admitted to the United Nations would fall.
The status of a voting member was conferred on the PLO at a meeting of the Arab League in Cairo yesterday. It had previously been a non-voting member. The League acted unanimously on a motion sponsored by Egypt. Israeli observers maintained that the decision stemmed from the present division in the Arab world over the conflict in Lebanon. They said that Egypt was seeking to assume the role of champion of the Palestinian cause in a move against Syria whose forces have been battling the Palestinians in Lebanon.
According to Israeli circles, any request to admit the PLO to the UN as a full member would have to be rejected because the PLO does not fit any of the criteria which determine a state according to the UN Charter. The PLO was granted observer status by the UN General Assembly last year and has participated in Security Council debates on the Middle East. Should a combination of the Arab, African and Communist bloc states press for admittance of the PLO, such a move would certainly be vetoed by the United States and by many other nations, the observers here said.
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