Approved For Release 2001/03/07
: CIA-RDP96-00789R002000680003-3
m
r*
lY, MARCH 30, 1987
Hussein
Weighing
U.S. Visit
Progress Toward
Mideast Peace Talks
Seen as Critical Issue
By Samira Kawar
Special to The Washington Post
AMMAN,
Jordan,
March 29—
Jordan is sending two top officials to
Washington next week
to
discuss
whether
a
visit
by King
Hussein
would succeed in making progress
toward an international peace con-
ference on the Middle East, a senior
Jordanian official said today.
Jordanian
Prime
Minister
Zeid
Rifai and Foreign Minister Taher
Masri will go to Washington April 5,
the official said.
Such
a
visit
by Hussein
would
represent
a
sharp change
in
the
Arab
leader’s
attitude.
Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak and Hus-
sein, two of the United States' clos-
est Arab
allies, were
invited
last
December and January, respective-
ly,
to
visit Washington. But both
turned down the invitations at the
time, in large part because of anger
over
the
Reagan
administration’s
sale of arms to Iran.
Jordan
and
Egypt,
both
con-
cerned
about
Islamic
extremism,
are two of Iraq’s most active sup-
porters in its war with Iran.
In Washington, a State Depart-
ment
official
said
the
Jordanian
prime minister is scheduled to meet
)tfit©\f^icFtQrdnbBj®as©a^J0n I
State George P. Shultz and Secre-
tary of Defense Caspar W. Wein-
n
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.
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w
KING HUSSEIN
.
. . rejected latest invitation
“The king wants to see
if this is
an
appropriate
time
to
come,
whether
he
should
come
this
spring,’’ the official said. The king is
anxious to “get things moving”
in
the peace process again, he said.
Hussein,
still
angered
by
an
American retreat from an arms sale
to
Jordan
in
1985,
had
worked
closely with U.S.
officials in trying
to stem the flow of arms to Iran and
thus was among the most outraged
Arab leaders after disclosure of the
secret sales to Iran.
Some of the weapons sent to Iran
were the same as those denied to
Jordan, one of Washington’s most
stable Arab friends in the region.
In an interview in the Arab press
in the aftermath of the Iran arms
sales
disclosure
last
November,
I
Hussein
said
“U.S.
credibility
is
zero as far as
I am concerned.” In
an interview
last year with Egyp-
tian journalists, he called the arms
deal “an insult to all Arabs.”
The king
also
sent
a
letter
to
arms sales.
“King Hussein is not interested in
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Indicted
Israeli
Resigns
Col. Sella, Pollard’s
Alleged Contact,
Cites U.S. Relations
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post Foreign Service
JERUSALEM,
March
29—Is-
raeli Air Force
Col. Aviem
Sella,
who is under U.S. indictment for his
alleged role in the Jonathan Jay Pol-
lard spy affair, today resigned
his
post as commander of one of
Is-
rael’s largest
air
bases, citing his
concern
about
relations
with
the
United States and American Jews.
Sella’s appointment
to the new
post late last month just days before
his indictment helped touch
off a
new storm of controversy over the
spying scandal. In his one-page let-
ter of resignation to the Air Force
commander,
Gen. Amos
Lapidot,
Sella said: “The deterioration in Is-
raeli-U.S. relations ?gd my concern
for the future of ties between the
two countries and for relations with
. American Jewry have induced me to
ask you to relieve me from my du-
ties as commander of the Tel Nof
base.
“I had made it clear to you a long
time ago that whatever role
I am
assigned must not constitute a bur-
den or obstacle to the Air Force or
the IDF [Israel Defense Force]
.
.
.
and I noted that should my appoint-
obstacle of any
O^OD^'^QQOtt^ountry’s in-
terest.above my own and resign.”
Israeli leaders reacted with relief