The Palestine Liberation Organization has pledged to do anything in its power to help evacuate Greek nationals from Iraq and Kuwait.
The offer was conveyed by the PLO diplomatic representative in Athens, Abdallah al-Abdallah, to the secretary of the Communist Party of Greece, Grigoris Farakos, whom he visited Wednesday at his office.
The PLO official said his organization was opposed in principle to foreign occupation of any country, and expressed hope that the United Nations would act so that all U.N. Security Council resolutions on occupation of foreign lands such as “Palestine” and Cyprus would be applied.
In a related development, former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, head of the opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement, is planning a trip to Baghdad either Friday or at the latest Sunday.
He is leaving on a peace initiative aimed at freeing Western hostages, the daily Eleftherotypia reported.
European leaders and the Socialist International have been briefed about Papandreou’s initiative, the newspaper said.
The Socialist party confirmed there was such a plan but that up to now nothing had been decided, Eleftherotypia said. However, that did not rule out that something might happen in the next few days.
The same sources said that before Papandreou makes his trip, he will have to have the approval of at least one European leader so that he will not be contradicting the position of other European countries on the crisis.
It seems that Papandreou will be relying heavily for his efforts on PLO chief Yasir Arafat, with whom he has very good personal relations.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
