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The continued chaos in Jordan made negotiations all but impossible. After arriving in Amman from Geneva, Red Cross Negotiator Rochat was trapped all day Wednesday in his hotel by the wild street fighting outside. He finally managed to reach one Front official by telephone. Pleading that circumstances made it impossible to start bargaining, he persuaded the commandos to agree to a 72-hour extension of their original 10 p.m. Wednesday deadline for blowing up the planes and their occupants.
The new deadline was 10 p.m. E.D.T. on Saturday. The U.S. State Department, which set up a round-the-clock command post in Washington under Middle East Specialist Talcott W. Seelye, stayed in constant touch with its embassy in Amman. But a U.S. official who tried to drive out to the airstrip was turned back, and frequently diplomatic personnel could not even venture into Amman's streets.
Another problem was that no one, in Habash's absence, emerged as a clear spokesman for the P.F.L.P. That made almost any remark by an individual commando appear to be a Front demand. One hijacker aboard the Pan American 747, for instance, told passengers that the Front would demand freedom for Sirhan B. Sirhan, convicted assassin of Senator Robert F. Kennedy. The assertion was quickly denied by other Popular Front members.
Wired for Explosion
On Thursday, the crisis cartel turned down the commandos' first detailed list of demands, which would have resulted in the trade of some hostages for convicted hijackers held in Europe and left others, including all the Jews and Israelis, to be bartered in a separate deal with Israel. The harrowing existence of hostages in Amman eased somewhat when the warring Jordanians and commandos reached yet another truce.
By Friday, the unstable situation in Jordan as well as the prolonged plight of the hostages forced the U.S. and Israel to consider a more drastic plan: military intervention. The Pentagon moved 25 Phantoms into a U.S. Air Force base at Incirlik, Turkey, where six 130 transports were already standing by to aid in a possible evacuation. The U.S. also ordered an aircraft carrier and supporting ships of the Sixth Fleet to a destination within reach of Jordan. Meanwhile Israel worked out a contingency plan that called for the use of helicopters and heliborne troops.