Franjieh’s decision still awaited

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 21

Franjieh’s decision still awaited

Z P A Reuter —< p-jr-jl- t BEIRI I. March 16.

I'he crisis-weary Lebanese are wailing today to sec if President Franjieh will Keep his belated promise to resign, or risk a bloody overthrow b\ opponents poised lor an all-out thrust against his palace.

Mr Franjieh. who has been under mounting military and Parliamentary pressure to resign since a hid to oust him began last Thursday, agreed to step down y esterday as commandos, mutinous troops, and Leftist gunmen prepared to march against him.

Late last night, honever. the President was insisting that a facesaving formula be found to make his exit appear voluntary, and that whoever succeeded him as Head of State should be acceptable to him.

i A radio station supporting |him has denied that he has i agreed to step down, and so it may vy-ell be that he is (having second thoughts ) about leaving. i In the rolling hills east of (Beirut, a mixed force of (Left-wingers and array muffineers has advanced to wijthin six miles of the Presi[dential Palace. I They have threatened to I storm it, as have commandos at the nearby Hatnmana barracks. Adding to the tension, pro-Syrian Palestinian commandos six miles south of Beirut are confronting an armoured column of army mutineers who have also threatened to storm the palace. The column of tanks, field guns, and armoured vehicles rolled towards the city from southern Lebanon yesterday, but they halted their advance, apparently to avoid a clash with the well-equipped Palestinian force. About 100 Saiqa commandos. dug in on a hillside overlooking the mutinous forces, were holding off the

column late last night without a >hot being fired Arab diplomatic sources report that at least 1000 Syrian troops have entered [Lebanon in the guise of members of the Palestinian Liberation Armv.

Syria, fearing that a total collapse in Lebanon would lead to Israeli intervention, olayed an important role in checking nine months of civil strife by arranging a case-fire on January 22. Political observers sa; that the same motive could explain the Saiqa commandos’ stand against the dissidents. It also appears likely that the presence of Syrian troop.s in Lebanon is intended to ensure that whoever succeeds Mr l-ranjieh < sympathetic to Damascus. There is still no guarantee that the President will tu t change his mind and sit tight, as he has been doing since the bid to oust him began, when General Az:z Al-Ahdab. the Beirut garrison commander, demanded his resignation.