LEBANON BORDER ALERT

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34105, 18 March 1976, Page 17

LEBANON BORDER ALERT

f.N’.Z. Press Assn—Copyright) TEL AVIV. March 17.

Israeli newspapers have reported that troops along the border with Lebanon have been placed on alert, and all leave cancelled.

According to a military correspondent, the move was prompted by reports that about 1000 Syrian troops had been moved into Lebanon under the guise of units of the Palestine Liberation Army.

One newspaper, “Yediot Aharanot,” said the Israeli High Command was trying to verify the reports. Israel has previously said that the entry into Lebanon of Syrian troops would force Israel to intervene. Until now, official Israeli policj’ has been based on the premise that the civil war in Lebanon was an internal problem. Israeli political analysts said that even radical Constitutional changes in Lebanon would be considered a domestic issue and would provoke no Israeli reaction.

But the intervention of the Syrian Army, on any pretext, was a different matter.

Syria, concerned that a total disintegration of Lebanese administration could invite Israeli intervention, played a dominant military and political role in Lebanon yesterday, according to reports from Beirut. Informed sources said President Hafez El-Assad of Syria had been in touch with President Franjieh of Lebanon by telephone Syrian and pro-Syrian forces appeared yesterday in a simultaneous two-pronged advance, with a variety of Left-wing gunmen and Army rebels moving towards Baabda from the east. The gunmen and rebels halted 10 kilometres short of their target after the arrival of more than 1000 Syrian troops in eastern Lebanon.

An armoured column of Army mutineers, trying to break through to the palace from the south, was halted 10 kilometres south of Beirut and pro-Syrian Palestine commandos were dug in on a hillside blocking their advance.

The defiant Mr Franjieh has been resisting pressure to step down since the Beirut garrison commander (General Aziz Al-Ahdab) first demanded his resignation six days ago.