PLO’s D.C. office will fly Palestinian flag

The Obama administration will allow the PLO office in Washington to fly the Palestinian flag and assume the title of “delegation.”

The change in status is only symbolic with no enhancement in diplomatic status, U.S. officials said.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the Palestinian Authority also has “requested permission to call itself the General Delegation of the PLO, which is a name that conforms to how they describe their  missions in Europe, Canada, and several Latin American countries.”

The White House suggested the changes would help spur the Palestinians toward direct peace talks with Israel, a key demand of the Israeli and U.S. governments.

PLO representation in Washington was made illegal under a number of laws in the mid 1980s, when the group was widely regarded as terrorist.

Since 1993, at the launch of the Oslo peace process, U.S. presidents have exercised their prerogative to waive the ban every six months. Obama and his predecessor, George W. Bush, have cultivated the PLO and its leadership of the P.A. as a means of stemming the influence of Hamas, a radical Islamist terrorist group. — jta