Sunday, April 13, 1997

Mayor Giuliani opened a new front in the New York City vs. the Rest of the World battle over diplomatic scofflaws, threatening to withhold scores of extra parking spaces promised to foreign envoys.

The mayor announced the get-tough plan in retaliation for the U.S. State Department’s revision of the terms of a crackdown on diplomats, many of them United Nations envoys, who rack up scores of unpaid parking tickets.

Giuliani said the original plan called for the city to designate 310 additional curbside spaces for diplomatic parking. In exchange, the city was authorized to tow and yank the license plates of diploscoffs who build up unpaid tickets for more than a year.

But after the State Department modified that plan Friday, Giuliani said the city wouldn’t come through with the extra parking.

“We’re certainly not going to go forward with all of those parking spaces,” he said.

What’s more, the mayor warned, the city may take back some of the 110 new spots that have already been designated for diplomats.

“This is an old rule I have. When I make a deal, I keep it. If you make a deal, you have to keep it — and they haven’t,” Giuliani said of the State Department.

“We haven’t decided yet exactly how many we are not going to go forward with, but we are definitely going to refuse to go forward with some percentage of them because the State Department has not gone forward with their part of the deal.”

Neither State Department officials nor UN representatives could be reached for comment yesterday.

However, the new skirmish may escalate international pressure for action at a UN General Assembly session on the dispute that was authorized last week.

Foreign diplomats voted for the session because, they say, the original crackdown plan violated principles of diplomatic immunity.

Original Story Date: 041397