
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 27, 1990                   TAG: 9005270070
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A17   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The New York Times
DATELINE: GENEVA, SWITZERLAND                                LENGTH: Medium

U.S. BLOCKS MIDEAST MISSION

In a development likely to heighten tensions at next Monday's Arab summit meeting in Baghdad, the United States on Saturday blocked an attempt by the United Nations Security Council to send a mission to investigate the treatment of Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The Security Council's failure to act meant that a session of the council, moved from New York to Geneva to hear Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, ended on a downbeat note, with Arabs complaining Arafat had been sent away empty-handed and warning this would strengthen extremists at the Baghdad meeting. Arafat had been told by U.S. officials he would get no visa.

"This is a difficult day for Arab moderates," the Arab League's U.N. representative, Clovis Maksoud, said after the Security Council session.

"Israel has shown it still has a stranglehold on American policy."

Maksoud predicted the Arab summit meeting will retaliate by adopting a more confrontational stance against the United States and Israel.

Speaking before the Security Council meeting's outcome was clear, Arafat said, "A very explosive and dangerous situation" is building up in the occupied territories.

"I'm warning of war. I'm not threatening war," he said, adding:

"The Israelis say no to everything. They say no to peace, they say no to the Baker plan, they say no to a Security Council team."

"How long can the United States go on taking its orders from Jerusalem like this?" a Western Security Council delegate asked, expressing a widespread mood of exasperation among council members.

Arab countries called the Security Council meeting to seek U.N. protection for Palestinians living in the occupied territories.

At least 15 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli forces in the latest protest, sparked last Sunday by the killing of seven Arab laborers by an apparently deranged Israeli civilian.

by CNB