Palestine question/USA suspension of dialogue with PLO – Statement by USSR Foreign Ministry – Letter from USSR

LETTER DATED 25 JUNE 1990 FROM THE PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF THE

UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS TO THE UNITED NATIONS ADDRESSED

TO THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

I have the honour to transmit to you herewith the text of a statement dated 22 June 1990 by a representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR.

I should be grateful if you would have it distributed as an official document of the Security Council.

(Signed) Y. VORONTSOV

Annex

STATEMENT BY A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE MINISTRY

OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE USSR

On 20 June the United States announced that it was suspending the dialogue with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). As justification for its decision, it cited the absence of an adequate reaction on the part of the PLO to the operation mounted by Palestinian militants off the Israeli coast on 30 May 1990.

It is generally known that, at its nineteenth session, in Algiers, the Palestine National Council declared that it renounced terrorism. As for the above-mentioned operation of 30 May, the PLO leadership has officially disavowed any involvement in it. Accordingly, we regard the decision of the American Administration as regrettable.

The United States action must be viewed in the context of the present deteriorating situation in the Middle East. It is obvious that the dialogue between the United States and the PLO, which is pursuing a realistic and constructive course in Middle East affairs, could, for all its limited character, serve as one means of furthering the peace process in that region, the need for which is being felt now more than ever. The ending of the dialogue could play into the hands of those forces which have no interest in achieving peace in the Middle East, and could lead to even greater tension, which would be fraught with unforeseeable consequences.

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