The State Department described as “not helpful” a resolution adopted by El Fatah, the most influential faction in the Palestine Liberation Organization, which called for increased military action against Israel rather than diplomatic efforts to solve the Palestinian problem.
The EI Fatah resolution adopted at its conference in Damascus yesterday, also rejected participation in any new Middle East formula proposed by the Western European governments, including amendments to Security Council Resolution 242 which may be favorable to the Palestinians. Commenting on these developments today, the State Department’s chief spokesman, Hodding Carter, said “We have stated on numerous occasions that a negotiated settlement is the only way to achieve a comprehensive Middle East peace.”
“Reliance on arms, violence and threats has not and will not lead to conditions conducive to the kind of political compromises required of all parties if lasting peace is to be achieved and the Palestinian problem is to be resolved in all its aspects,” Carter said in a prepared statement. He added, “It is regrettable that Fatah, the principal organization in the PLO, has failed to enunciate a program that takes account of this fact.” He said the U.S. would consider its position should the PLO go to the Security Council, as it has threatened to do, to accuse the U.S. of responsibility for yesterday’s bomb attacks on Arab mayors on the West Bank.
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