Arafat Visits Yugoslavia, Declares Anti-Israel Uprising Will Go On

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia —  Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat vowed Tuesday that the Palestinian uprising will continue until Israel is swept from the occupied territories.

Arafat told Yugoslavia, a nonaligned Communist country, that it has a special role to play as leader of the Nonaligned Movement in pressing for peace in the Middle East.

“Our decision was and has been to continue the intifada (uprising) until the occupier is pushed from our territories, and until our people get a chance to enjoy their sovereignty under PLO leadership on their national soil,” Arafat said in a dinner speech, the text of which was released in advance.

“The whole world has taken our side. . . . Israel continues to remain isolated and to defy the will of the international community,” he said.

Arafat, on a tour to secure European backing for an independent Palestinian state, was welcomed by President Raif Dizdarevic at Belgrade airport in a ceremony normally reserved for a head of state.

He later met Dizdarevic and Yugoslav Communist Party leader Stipe Suvar for three hours of talks that focused on the PLO’s latest diplomatic moves and nonaligned support for them, officials said.

Last week the United States and the PLO made their first official contacts after Arafat renounced terrorism at the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva.