The PLO cemented the last block Friday for a historic agreement with Israel, approving a Palestinian self-rule plan for the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while Jordan moved toward its own peace agreement with the Jewish state.
The endorsement by the PLO's Executive Committee set the stage for a signing ceremony in Washington on Monday on the self-rule accord as well as a mutual recognition pact between Israel and the PLO - sworn enemies for three decades.President Clinton asked PLO chief Yasser Arafat to name a delegation to send to Washington for the signing, PLO Information Minister Yasser Abed-Rabbo announced after the 9-3 committee vote.
A senior U.S. official said Friday night that Arafat may attend the White House signing. He said that the PLO was pushing hard for a role for Arafat in the South Lawn ceremony and that Clinton was taking the position that it is up to the PLO to choose their delegation.
In Jordan, an optimistic King Hussein told British TV on Friday that Jordan and Israel could move ahead on their own peace talks and agree on an agenda early next week. A senior U.S. official said in Washington an "agenda for peace" would be announced on Tuesday.
Hussein said it would be "some time" before Jordan and Israel could hope to negotiate an overall treaty, but that they could agree on a process to resolve their problems "very, very soon."
The pact between the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Jewish state gives limited self-rule first to the Gaza Strip and the town of Jericho in the West Bank. It foresees a permanent accord based on Israeli withdrawal from occupied lands.
"Minor reservations" expressed at the PLO ruling board's meeting centered mainly on the economic aspects of the agreement, committee member Mohammed Zohdi Nashashibi said. He declined to elaborate. Palestinians are concerned they will not receive enough economic aid to make their fledgling government viable.
Opponents also castigate the accord for failing to deal with crucial issues such as the status of Jerusalem, which Palestinians want as the capital of their would-be state, and the return of refugees.
Friday's approval came one day after Israel and the PLO recognized each other, clearing away the biggest hurdle to signing the self-rule accord.
"We are taking a real historical risk," said Abed-Rabbo. "We are not going to allow the opportunity to give a chance for peace to slip away."
He discounted death threats against Arafat from radical Palestinian factions, saying, "we give no attention to such threats."
Three members resigned from the 18-member PLO committee Friday to protest the Israel-PLO recognition, bringing to four the number who resigned since news of the secret peace talks began leaking out late last month. One member could not attend Friday's meeting because of illness. Another boycotted the session.
The Palestinian "foreign minister," Farouk Kaddoumi, was said to be upset that the PLO had committed itself to winding down the nearly 6-year-old uprising against Israeli rule, saying it was too early to make such a pledge.
Kaddoumi issued a statement condemning the recognition accord as "violating the inalienable right of the Palestinian people."
Clinton applauded the accord and responded by restoring American diplomatic contacts with the PLO. U.S.-PLO contacts were suspended when PLO guerrillas attacked Israelis in 1990.
In Israel, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told Israeli TV he had no plans to meet with Arafat when the agreement is formalized in the U.S. capital, but could meet him on some other occasion.
Nashashibi said Arafat might go to Washington for Monday's signing if Rabin also went.
Officials at the Israeli Embassy in Washington said there were no plans for Rabin to be in Washington Monday, so it appeared likely the agreement would be signed by lower-level officials.
Russia, co-sponsor with the United States of the Mideast peace talks, hailed the agreement as comparable to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The agreement between the Jewish state and the PLO, which long threatened to drive the Israelis into the sea and was branded a terrorist organization by Israel, drew strong opposition on both sides in Israel and the occupied lands.
"God will punish this insult!" lawmaker Hanan Porath shouted in Jerusalem, where hundreds of Israelis banged pots and hit the ground with sticks Friday to protest Israel's recognition of the PLO.
"I say to the PLO that history will not forgive them and also tell them that the struggle will not stop," said Abdel-Aziz Rantisi, a spokesman for the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas group that opposes the Israeli-PLO accord.
Such opposition is seen as unlikely to reverse the drive toward peace between the longtime foes.
"I see this as a moment of importance with many opportunities, but not a few risks," said Rabin after he signed a terse one-paragraph letter to Arafat recognizing the PLO.
Then, reflecting the distrust still felt here, he added, "All of this is being done with the assumption that the other side will also fulfill all its obligations."