Murphy: Israel, Jordan Have Narrowed Gap on How to Start Talks, but Hussein Won’t Move Without PLO O

Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy told a Congressional subcommittee today that while Israel and Jordan have narrowed the gap on how to reach the negotiating table, Jordan’s King Hussein will not move into negotiations without “acquiesence” from the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Murphy, who appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East, urged the approval of plans to sell Jordan a $1.9 billion arms package that faces continued opposition in both Houses of Congress. A resolution passed by the House and Senate last fall barred the sale until March 1, unless “direct and meaningful peace negotiations between Israel and Jordan are underway.”

With the deadline approaching and Congress scheduled for a week-long recess next month, Murphy was in Europe last week for separate meetings with King Hussein and Premier Shimon Peres of Israel, both of whom were there on visits. Peres, who is facing the possibility of a change of government in Israel, has also been pushing for a new peace initiative.

Maintaining that “progress is being made” on achieving a formula for negotiations, Murphy re-stated the Administration’s contention that the arms package for Jordan is necessary to keep up the momentum in the peace process, and urged Congress to avoid any “disruption at this delicate stage.”

Although he declined to offer details of his meetings in Europe, Murphy promised there will be “no sleight of hand, no parliamentary tricks on the part of the Administration” in dealing with the arms sales issue as the March deadline approaches. If no resolution of disapproval is passed before March 1, the President would be permitted to proceed with the sale.

STRONG OPPOSITION TO JORDAN ARMS SALE

But members of the subcommittee indicated that opposition remains strong. Larry Smith (D. Fla.) said he would seek to push through a resolution reversing conditions set by the resolution passed last fall.

He might have been referring to an apparent effort on the part of some to approve an extension of the March deadline, but with terms reversed: rather than allow the sale to go through by a new proposed deadline, the legislation would provide for an automatic disapproval of the sale unless Congress decided otherwise in the interim.

There had been suggestions that Hussein was on the verge of abandoning his PLO partner, Yasir Arafat, unless the latter agrees to accept United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, which implicitly recognize Israel.

But Murphy acknowledged in response to a question from Rep. Stephen Solarz (D. N.Y.) that Hussein still regards the PLO’s “acquiesence” in a negotiations formula as “the minimum” to enable the Jordanian ruler to move into peace talks with Israel. Murphy also categorically denied a UPI report that a U.S. envoy met with Arafat in Amman today.

In response to persistent questioning about the Syrian threat to Jordan which the Administration has maintained makes the arms sale especially important, Murphy said the possibility of bringing Damascus into the peace process does not discount a continued threat to Jordan from the north.