Arafat Offers a Peace Plan to the U.N.; Bush rejects It : Says More ‘Clarity’ Is Needed

PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat today offered a three-point peace plan calling for negotiations with Israel at an international peace conference and U.N. supervision of Israeli-occupied territories.

In Washington, President-elect George Bush said Arafat’s speech was not enough to warrant opening talks between the United States and the Palestine Liberation Organization, and he added that a “clearer statement on everything” is necessary.

In a long-awaited speech to a special session of the U.N. General Assembly, Arafat referred specifically to Israel several times and directly appealed to Israeli leaders to join peace talks.

‘Forge That Peace’

“I ask the leaders of Israel to come here, under the sponsorship of the United Nations, so that, together, we can forge that peace,” he said.

He also appealed to the Israeli people: “Come, let us make the peace of the bold, far from the arrogance of power and the weapons of destruction, far from the occupation and oppression and humiliation and murder and torture.”

Arafat’s three-point plan called first for “a serious effort” to convene an international peace conference in Geneva under U.N. auspices.

His second point urged that “occupied Palestinian land” be placed under temporary U.N. supervision, that peacekeeping forces be deployed and that Israeli troops withdraw. He did not say if he was referring to the West Bank and Gaza Strip, occupied by Israel in 1967.

Settlement Urged

Arafat’s third point called for “a comprehensive settlement” among all parties to the Arab-Israeli conflict, including “the state of Palestine, Israel and other neighbors, within the framework of the international conference.”

In Jerusalem, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir dismissed Arafat’s initiatives, saying that the PLO had not changed its policy of terror.

U.S. State Department spokesman Charles Redman said Arafat failed to meet conditions for opening a dialogue with the United States because his speech did not clearly recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Redman disclosed that the State Department, working through unspecified “third parties,” had attempted to persuade Arafat before the speech to meet the U.S. conditions for a dialogue.

Ready to Deal

Israeli sources disclosed that Secretary of State George P. Shultz had notified Ambassador Moshe Arad on Monday night that if the conditions were met, the United States was prepared to deal with the PLO.

In calling for an international conference, Arafat said it should be conducted “on the basis of Resolutions 242 and 338 and so as to guarantee equality and the balance of interests, especially our people’s rights in freedom, national independence and respect for the right to exist in peace and security for all.” The U.N. resolutions provide for all countries in the region to exist within secure borders.

Arafat, wearing his traditional khaki military uniform and black-and-white checkered Arab headdress, spoke in Arabic for an hour and 20 minutes. Delegates in the hall applauded for nearly a minute afterwards.