State Department Concerned About PLO Threats to Continue Terror

The State Department affirmed today that it took “very seriously” its responsibility to protect individuals and foreign installations here “including those of the government of Israel” and also took “very seriously” terrorist threats against those targets.

State Department spokesman Robert Funseth gave that assurance in response to reports from Damascus yesterday that the Palestine Liberation Organization will mount more raids on Israel along the lines of the Savoy Hotel attack a week ago and would “strike at any Israeli target wherever we can reach it, in Israel, or in Japan or in the United States.”

The threat was issued by Zouheir Mohsen, head of the PLO’s military section and of the Syrian-sponsored Al-Saiqa terrorist group. Mohsen was quoted as saying that the raid on Tel Aviv last week was intended to undermine Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger’s current peace effort which he claimed was aimed at coaxing Egypt into a separate agreement with Israel and splitting it away from Syria and the PLO. Mohsen referred to Kissinger as a “joker and charlatan.” Replying to a question by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Funseth said that “The U.S. government takes all such threats very seriously.”

Asked what precautions were being taken, he declined to go into specific measures but observed that “Under International law, it is the responsibility of the U.S. government to protect our foreign guests and official foreign installations, including those of the government of Israel. We take this responsibility very seriously and we are very vigilant in carrying this responsibility out,” he said. Asked if there has been any contact between the U.S. and the PLO, Funseth said he was not aware of any.