The State Department has indicated that it cannot legally close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s observer office at the United Nations in New York, even if ordered to do so by Congress.
“Closing that mission would not be consistent with our international legal obligations under the UN headquarters agreement,” Department spokesman Charles Redman said last Friday. Redman was commenting on the action of the Senate, which in approving the $3.6 billion State Department authorization bill last Thursday, adopted by voice vote an amendment by Sen. Charles Grassley (R. Iowa) to close the PLO’s UN mission, as well as its information office in Washington. The State Department on Sept. 15 gave the PLO information office 30 days to close.
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