Arab aid for Lebanon

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33579, 6 July 1974, Page 13

Arab aid for Lebanon

(N.Z.P.A.-Rewter—Copyright) CAIRO, July 5. Arab States took secret decisions last night to help Lebanon face Israeli attacks, but apparently failed to agree on a specific plan to repel the raids. Summing up a two-day meeting here of the Joint Arab Defence Council, Mr Mahmoud Riad, the Secre-tary-General of the Arab League, declined to give any details of the decisions but said the support included political, military and financial forms. He said the meeting reaffirmed the Arab States’ commitment to safeguard Lebanon’s sovereignty and to support the Palestinians “in their just struggle to restore their national rights.” Informed sources said that j the financial help would enable Lebanon to buy weapons for its Army. The sources added that the Palestinians were likely to ask for ground-to-air missiles to defend the refugee camps in Southern

Lebanon against Israeli attacks. Throughout the meetings, Premier Takieddin El-Solh of Lebanon refrained from presenting any concrete proposals for action to stop Israeli air raids. In what appeared to be: an assertion of Lebanon’s reluctance to station Arab forces on its own territory, Mr Solh

told N.Z.P.A.-Reuter that his country had its own defence plan which would require a vast expenditure. Informed sources said that Lebanon was anxious not to commit itself to any plan by which other Arab forces would be stationed on its’ soil—a step which the Lebanese believe would invite pre-emptive Israeli strikes. Mr Riad said the meeting, summoned by Kuwait to consider ways of helping Lebanon and the Palestinians meet Israeli attacks, had rejected plans to reinstate the oil embargo. “The decisions are secret. The oil embargo is not secret and if it were decided it would be announced,” he said.

Dr Radhakrishnan Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the former Indian President, is “much better” according to the latest medical report from his hospital in Madras. Dr Radhakrishnan, aged 85, was admitted to hospital on June 22 after a stroke.—-New Delhi, July 5.