The United States reiterated today that it hopes that “no nation” will interfere with the evacuation of Yasir Arafat and some 4,000 of his Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists by ship from Tripoli in northern Lebanon.
“The time has come to bring this matter to a conclusion and move ahead with the evacuation,” State Department deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said. But he did not know when the PLO’s evacuation aboard Greek ships flying the United Nations flag would start.
Romberg stressed that the U.S. has “continued to be in touch with the appropriate parties. We support the evacuation both to spare the people of Tripoli further bloodshed and to see the withdrawal from Lebanon of a large number of PLO fighters. We believe that no nation should interfere with the evacuation,” he said.
Romberg continued to refuse to say whether the U.S. has specifically asked Israel not to hamper the evacuation. All he would say was that the U.S. has “expressed” its views to Israel.
However, State Department sources indicated they do not expect the Israelis to fire on the ships that will carry the PLO contingent to safety in North Africa. They noted that while Israel has strongly objected to Arafat being evacuated under protection of the UN flag, the Israelis have never said they would attack the ships.
ISRAEL CRITICIZED FOR BLOWING UP HOUSES
Meanwhile, Romberg criticized Israel’s action Sunday in blowing up three houses and sealing three others in the West Bank belonging to persons who have confessed to terrorist acts. “We have firmly and consistently opposed the use of collective punishment which effects the innocent as well as the guilty,” he said.
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