Angry scenes as Solh quits

Press, Issue 33845, 17 May 1975, Page 15

Angry scenes as Solh quits

Z PA.Reuter—Copyright) BEIRUT, May 16. President Franjieh of Lebanon faces the daunting task today of tinding a new Prime .Minister to succeed Mr Rashid Solh. who resigned last night after 196 days in power.

Mr Solh resigned after; telling Parliament that he blamed the Right-wing Phalangist Party for last! month’s clashes between Palestinian commandos and Right-wingers in which about 140 people were killed and scores were injured. He said the trouble began when the Phalangists fired on a bus in the Beirut suburbs, killing 27 Palestinians and sparking off five days of] heavy fighting in the capi-j tai. Angry reaction The Phalangists have said! that undisciplined com-1 mandos were to blame for' starting the fighting, and! Right-wing deputies reacted' violently to Mr Solh’s state-1 ment. A few deputies angrily grabbed him, but he pushed* them aside, got into his car,| and drove up to the mountains outside Beirut to hand; in his resignation to Presi-1 dent Franjieh. The President was report-] ed to have asked him to stay in power until a new' Government is formed. .Over half the Ministers in Mr Solh’s 18-rnan Cabinet had resigned after widespread criticism of the Government’s handling of last month’s clashes in the capital. The Government had pre- ! viously been criticised for reacting indecisively to Is-

raeli attacks on targets tn Lebanon and fighting between Left-wingers and the Army two months ago. “Exploiting""’ After they failed to reply to Mr Solh’s charges in Parliament, the Phalangists issued a statement accusing him of exploiting the Parliamentary rostrum “to cause dissension in the country by a series of slanders against the Phalangists.” Both the outgoing Prime Minister and the Phalangists, however, stressed in their [ statements that they were eager to continue their sup- ■ port for the Palestinian [cause and anxious to mainI tain good relations with the ;rest of the Arab world.