The Palestine Liberation Organization representative in Italy, Nehmer Hammad, said today that while no official invitation has been extended to PLO chief Yasir Arafat to visit Italy he would be willing to come if an invitation was extended. Hammad was obviously referring to Arafat’s recent visit in Vienna with Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and Socialist International president Willy Brandt and PLO moves in France to have Arafat invited officially by French government officials.
Hammad said that “in the PLO’s program there is a new opening toward Western Europe.” He noted the fact that Italy has no stable government at the moment is an obstacle and added, “Let’s hope that there will soon be a stable government in Italy which will be able to invite Arafat and I believe that he, as chairman of the executive committee of the PLO, is ready to come to Italy.” Several months ago, Farouk Kaddoumi, the PLO’s head of foreign relations, was received by Italy’s Foreign Minister Arnaldo Forlani.
The Rome daily, II Messagero, noted that France’s apparent interest in inviting Arafat seems to be connected to the recent statement by Saudi Arabia’s Oil Minister Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, at the conclusion of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries summit, that oil price stability will be directly related to Europe’s behavior on the Palestinian problem.
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