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Kreisky: "The Myth of the
chosen people is one of the greatest lies in life."
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Emirates News
Newspaper, December 10, 1981
By Adel Bishtawi
ABU DHABI (WAM) Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky said the Camp
David accord was "useless" as far as the Palestinian problem is
concerned adding that the eight-point Middle East peace plan
proposed by Saudi Crown Prince Fahd provides a better base to reach
a settlement.
Speaking at a press conference before his departure at the end of a
three-day State visit to the UAE, the Chancellor said the plan Is a
better base for substantial negotiations of the Middle East
questions than the Camp David agreements," because the agreements do
not offer the Palestinians anything despite the fact the P
Palestinian problem is a key issue In the Middle East."
Fahd's plan, he said, is a summary of all the decisions taken by the
United Nations on the issue of the Middle East such as 242 and
others, and it will be a good ground for any further negotiations
aimed at solving the problem.
The Chancellor denied any involvement by the Palestine Liberation
Organisation (PLO) In the Vienna August incidents. "There is no
doubt the PLO has nothing to do with those activities not because
Arafat, (Yasser Arafat, Chairman of the PLO) said so, but because we
have found that out."
Austrian public opinion, the Chancellor added, does not
differentiate between the different Palestinian groups and the PLO,
they are all Palestinians, "but the PLO has nothing to do with
terrorist activities In Austria, on the contrary, they are
absolutely opposed to all such activities."
Kreisky who earlier met Arafat for an hour long discussion of the
Middle East and Austria PLO relations, said he asked the PLO
Chairman to send a high-ranking official to Vienna to be the new
representative of the PLO there.
"I asked Arafat to send a man of high prestige because he will be
representing the movement (PLO) and how the man is the movement
because when he will come soon to Vienna, our journalists will be
hounding him like "terrorists" the Chancellor said jokingly.
Chancellor Kreisky began last Saturday a Gulf tour that took him to
Kuwait, Bahrain and the UAE, and he started today an official visit
to Qatar to discuss the Middle East, bilateral and important
international questions.
He expressed satisfaction at the results of his discussion that he
described as "very frank and positive" but as far as the talks with
UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan are concerned "I
have been deeply impressed by his frankness, broad-minded ness and
wisdom."
"The talks we had yesterday," the Chancellor pointed out, "were an
exciting experience and what he said about Issues outside the area,
made me wish for such men to be head of bigger countries."
The 70-year-old statesman said Austrian relations with the Gulf
countries are "good" but not intense enough. "We could do much more
in all fields and find new forms of cooperation. "I am a partisan of
close economic, political and cultural cooperation between Austria
and the Arab world."
Asked to comment on the statements attributed to French External
Relations Minister Claude Cheysson in which he called on Europe to
abandon thoughts of a peace-making role in the Middle East, the
Chancellor recommended to wait and see what the Minister has to say
when he returns to France.
But the Chancellor explained that if Cheysson did really say what
the press reports attributed to him then "I do not believe that he
is entitled to say that."
From Bayan Newspaper, (Dubai, UAE) December 8, 1981:
Kreisky is considered one of most knowledgeable European leader, s
special standing he attributed to his early involvement in foreign
affairs. "At an early stage," he said, "it became clear to me the
Middle East Problem would be one of the most important problems of
the World."
Although recent developments have not been encouraging, Kreisky said
he personally think it can be solved. "The Saudi peace initiative,
in my opinion, is proof but a plan is something and its
implementation is something else."
On the PLO Kreisky said one cannot judge a movement with the same
yardstick for judging governments and their actions, but he added,
"There are some in the PLO or among the Palestinians who behave in
such a way that it cannot induce silence and I have said so. But
this does not mean the Palestinian problem is not a core problem in
the Middle East or that the PLO does not represent the Palestinian
people and we have, therefore, to continue to deal with it."
Kreisky described Meacham Begin as "a primitive, short sighted
person". The Myth of the chosen people," he said, "is one of the
greatest lies in life."
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