Arafat’s Plan to Speak in U.S. Revives Issue of Visa

WASHINGTON —  The list of troublesome problems that the Bush Administration will inherit when it takes office grew longer Tuesday when Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, accepted an invitation to speak in Washington on April 13.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee issued the invitation to Arafat, reopening the controversial issue of granting him a visa.

The Arafat question is expected to be added to a transition report being prepared this week for incoming Secretary of State James A. Baker III that includes lack of progress on the investigation of the airliner bombing over Scotland last month and on efforts to free American hostages held in Lebanon.

Arafat’s terrorist reputation was the reason the State Department denied his visa request to speak at the United Nations in New York last month. Although he later publicly renounced terrorism, and Washington then opened contacts with the PLO, U.S. officials have been reluctant to move too quickly in the new PLO dialogue.

Abdeen Jabara, president of the Anti-Discrimination Committee, which issued the invitation after meeting with Arafat last week, called on the United States to facilitate the trip.

“The granting of a visa to the PLO chairman will not only be a gesture of good will toward the 2 million Americans of Arab descent but would also underline the new Administration’s commitment to resolving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict within the framework of free and open discussion of all parties,” Jabara said.

State Department officials said that no decision will be made until the Bush Administration takes office Friday. But one conceded: “This will be a tricky call. It may depend on what Arafat does and says between now and then.”

After an official visit to Finland, Arafat predicted Tuesday that President-elect Bush’s first year in office will be crucial to the Middle East peace process. “This year we can push forward with all our efforts to achieve peace,” he said.

State Department officials said that the transition report, centered largely on Middle East and terrorism issues, also outlines the frustrating lack of progress in the investigation of the bombing of the Pan Am jumbo jet over Scotland last month.

Despite a plethora of reports about leads and cooperation from key sources, including the PLO, a U.S. official contended today: “We have no good news in the report being prepared for Baker.”

Report of PLO Efforts

He added, “According to reports from both the FBI and the British government, the PLO has not come through with anything.” ABC News reported Monday that more than a dozen PLO operatives are trying to track down the terrorists who planted the bomb on the Pan Am flight, which was heading to New York.

Counterterrorism officials were particularly hopeful that Arafat would come forth with information, since the PLO intelligence network is among the most efficient in the Middle East. Among the key suspects are renegade Palestinian groups outside the PLO umbrella who are opposed to Arafat’s recent diplomatic concessions.

The official noted that the United States also is “seriously disappointed” that the Soviet Union and other Middle East sources who publicly pledged their services have offered no help so far.

In response to weekend reports that Iranian or pro-Iranian extremists were the leading suspects in the terrorist attack, a counterterrorism official said Tuesday: “There is no evidence right now to support that Iran or Iran-supported groups were involved. No one has yet narrowed down the list of suspects. We have also not yet ruled out criminal possibilities.”