Two-Step

The P.L.O. makes a move

"Mr. Reagan could not say he has no anwer to his proposal for a Middle East settlement." That was the way a top political adviser to Palestine Liberation Organization Chief Yasser Arafat ex plained the significance of a diplomatic arrangement worked out last week between the P.L.O. and Jordan. The agreement, hammered out in committee meetings chaired by Arafat and Jordanian Prime Minister Mudar Badran, pledges "joint political moves at all levels" and calls for "a special and distinctive relationship" between Jordan and a "liberated Palestine" to be created out of the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Though the exact nature of the relationship was not spelled out, both sides acclaimed the agreement as a step toward President Ronald Reagan's four-month-old peace initiative, in which he proposed a loose confederation between the West Bank and Jordan. It seemed to be an attempt to enhance the position of Jordan's King Hussein as he prepared to meet with Reagan at the White House this week.

To reach the agreement, both parties displayed unusual flexibility. The P.L.O. for the first time lined up with a single Arab state, one that had forcibly expelled it from its territory in 1971. Indeed, Arafat may have gone well beyond what some P.L.O. hard-liners will accept. He thus proposed that the Palestinian residents of the Israeli-occupied territories vote on the outcome of any negotiations.

The Palestinians did not budge on their basic goals, which include the creation of an independent Palestine. But to break the negotiating deadlock between the U.S., Israel and the P.L.O., the agreement called for the Palestinians to be represented by a delegation that includes Jordanians and non-P.L.O. Palestinians authorized by the P.L.O. to represent its interests.

U.S. officials read the P.L.O.-Jordanian agreement as mildly constructive. Still, they remain skeptical of any real change in Hussein's ability to negotiate on behalf of the P.L.O. The King, meanwhile, will be looking for some sign that the U.S. can win any concessions from Israel, which has flatly rejected the Reagan initiative.

On Sunday the Israeli government announced an agreement with Lebanon for direct negotiations about the withdrawal of Israeli troops, as well as the consideration of political arrangements between the two countries. Israel, which had been under intense U.S. pressure, gave up its demands that such talks occur in both Beirut and Jerusalem. If Israeli, Syrian and P.L.O. troops actually begin to pull out of Lebanon, Reagan will be in a better position to pursue his West Bank peace proposal.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.