The United States is expected to ask the Palestine Liberation Organization this week for an explanation of why three members of a radical PLO faction were intercepted last week near the Israeli border in Lebanon, a State Department source said Monday.
The three were members of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the source said, and may have been planning a raid into northern Israel before they were killed Feb. 23 by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.
The presence of the three Democratic Front members near the Israeli border is “not your normal type of thing in Lebanon,” the source said. “That’s why we are upset about it.”
The incident is expected to increase Israeli pressure on the United States to end its dialogue with the PLO. Israel’s deputy chief of mission here, Oded Eran, made such a request Feb. 6 after an attempt by five armed Palestinians the previous day to infiltrate northern Israel.
The Israel Defense Force said that those captured or killed in the Feb. 5 interception belonged to two radical PLO groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Syrian-based Palestine Liberation Front.
The source said the United States is not claiming that PLO chairman Yasir Arafat had any role in ordering either of the infiltration attempts.
‘PLO CANNOT ESCAPE RESPONSIBILITY’
At the State Department Monday, spokesman Charles Redman said the United States plans to tell the PLO that such incidents are “contrary to the peaceful objectives of our dialogue.”
“The PLO cannot escape responsibility for the actions of its constituent elements,” he added.
“We have made it clear to the PLO that these kinds of operations have a negative impact on the U.S-PLO dialogue, and on the atmosphere necessary for a positive Palestinian-Israeli dialogue, “he said. “We do not condone this type of activity.”
The United States sees the dialogue as “not an end in itself but as a way to contribute to the Middle East peace process,” said Redman, “and that would be our expectation for this dialogue as it develops.”
The spokesman said there has been one meeting between U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia Robert Pelletreau Jr. and PLO representatives, plus two “subsequent contacts.” Pelletreau is the sole U.S. official authorized to engage in what the United States calls a “substantive dialogue” with the PLO.
At the upcoming meeting, Pelletreau will again speak with Hakam Balaoui, the PLO’s representative in Tunis.
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