U.N. Body Hoping to Prevent U.S. Penalty for PLO Move

The director general of the World Health Organization said Sunday he had just conferred with the American delegation to the United Nations here regarding a U.S. warning that it will cut its allocation to the U.N. body if a bid to seat Palestine as a member state is accepted.

Hiroshi Nakajima spoke to the Americans after meeting Saturday with Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasir Arafat.

Nakajima said he would try to meet with Secretary of State James Baker, and even possibly with President Bush, before gaveling the World Health Assembly to order on May 8.

The United States contributes 25 percent of WHO’s annual budget. Nakajima said he knows that if the PLO is accepted as a full member, the United States will cut its contribution, necessitating major cuts in the U.N. body’s activities.

Arafat, writing as the “president of the State of Palestine,” sent Nakajima a letter stating that “Palestine” would ask to be seated as a sovereign state when the U.N. organization convenes its annual assembly here.

On Saturday, Arafat said the PLO’s bid to gain membership in WHO will not interfere with Israel’s membership in that body.

Arafat made clear that he had no intention of moving against Israel as a member of WHO or other U.N. organizations, wishing “Palestine to participate with all members, including Israel.”

The PLO’s bid for Palestine to be seated as a member state will be the first topic on the agenda of the assembly’s opening session.

Nakajima has told the Israeli ambassador to the U.N. European headquarters, Pinchas Eliav, that despite Israeli objections over the move, he has no power to oppose the bid, which U.S. officials believe will succeed.

Israel is contesting the proposed move on the basis that there are no fixed borders to the so-called state of Palestine.

Nakajima said five countries, including Israel and the United States, had made known their opposition to the Palestine bid. However, he would not identify the other three countries.

He said, though, that reactions to the upcoming move were varied, ranging from concern to preoccupation.

Arafat, who talked with Nakajima about the delay in setting up a Middle East peace conference, reiterated his willingness to participate in other international forums on the subject and to work with other countries, including Israel, “to further the humanitarian work of WHO as a means of achieving peace in the Middle East.”