The Reagan administration continued to maintain Monday that King Hussein’s move to renounce claims to the West Bank does not impact U.S. efforts to bring about a negotiated peace in the Middle East.
“It does not change anything from our perspective,” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said. “It doesn’t alter our approach. Our policy is not changed in any way by this action.”
Fitzwater added that “the peace process remains the same in the sense of our proposal. Our effort was to get the parties together through a series of conferences leading to direct negotiations.”
Hussein, in a television address to his nation Sunday, said that at the request of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Jordan respects the right of the Palestinians “to secede from us in an independent Palestinian state.”
This followed his decision last week to cancel Jordan’s $1.3 billion economic development plan for the West Bank and to dissolve the lower house of Jordan’s Parliament, half of whose members were from the West Bank.
Fitzwater would not speculate how Hussein’s decision would affect Palestinian representation in negotiations with Israel.
At the State Department Monday, spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said, “We welcome the fact that King Hussein in his speech underscored Jordan’s commitment to continue in the peace process. The Jordanian role in the Middle East peace process remains essential.
‘RESPONSIBLE DIALOGUE’
“We’ve said repeatedly that Palestinians must also participate in every stage of the process, and we hope that they will meet the challenge by seeking responsible dialogue with Israel,” she said.
The administration apparently is withholding public assessment of Hussein’s action until Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy can discuss the development directly with the Jordanian monarch this week.
Murphy, who heads the Bureau of Near Eastern and South Asian Affairs, is also scheduled to confer with leaders in Israel, Egypt and Syria during his current Mideast trip.
At the White House, Fitzwater stressed Monday that while Hussein has abandoned his economic development program for the West Bank, the United States “will continue our direct program of assistance through contributions, primarily to private voluntary organizations. These enhance the well-being and economic development of the Palestinian people living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”
Contributions to these organizations totaled $14 million in 1986, $8.5 million in 1987 and $5.8 million this year, with another $1.3 million requested from Congress as a supplemental appropriation, Fitzwater said.
In addition, he said, the United States has made annual contributions to Hussein’s development program: $5.5 million in 1986, $14 million in 1987, $7 million in 1988 and another $7 million requested for 1989.
Oakley said she saw no problem in now having this money funneled to private groups in the West Bank, since the development plan has been scrapped.
Fitzwater also said that the U.S. provided $46.25 million in aid to the Jordanian government this year and has requested $67.8 million for 1989.
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