The World : PLO to Defy U.S. Ouster

The head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s U.N. mission vowed to defy a U.S. order to close the group’s office, challenging Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to “put me behind bars.” Zehdi Labib Terzi also said that if the mission is closed, then Israel should be excluded from U.N. debates on the Middle East. “We have the right to stay here, we will stay here and we will stay where we are,” he added. The PLO has permanent U.N. observer status. The Justice Department has said it will close the PLO’s mission in New York by March 21. Meese ordered it shut down under the 1987 Anti-Terrorism Act, “irrespective” of U.S. obligations under its agreements as host country to the world body. U.N. officials have protested the U.S. move.