Syrian tanks move into Lebanon

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34126, 12 April 1976, Page 17

Syrian tanks move into Lebanon

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter —Copyright)

MASNAA, April 11.

Syria has deployed at least 40 Soviet-built tanks inside Lebanon to add force to its efforts to mediate in the civil war.

The tanks have rumbled over the border in the last two days, and are today ranged on the gently sloping hills around the Lebanese frontier post of Masnaa, on the highway from Damascus to Beirut.

The Syrian troops make no secret of where they came from, unlike the thousands of men of other Syrian units who have entered Lebanon in recent months disguised as Palestinians.

Bulldozers are at work ati Masnaa, gouging out em-1 placements in the rocky soil, and some tanks are already bedded down behind mounds of earth, their guns pointing. into Lebanon across the flat' farmland of the Bekaa Valley. Lebanese customs and se-. curity officials left theiri posts when the Syrians arrived, and residents say that some of them were disarmed by the troops. There is no hint that the tanks intend to push deeper into Lebanon, but their visible presence is a salutory reminder to the politicians | in Beirut — and particularly • to the leaders of Left-wing groups who have come under mounting pressure from Syria to soften their demands — that a full-scale Syrian intervention is a real possibility. If the Syrians decide to

i advance further, there is I little to stop them — at 'least, as far as the Mount Lebanon Range on the othei side of the Bekaa Valley, I about seven miles away. 1 A few miles in front of the Syrian positions is the headquarters of the rebel Lebanese Arab Army, the (most sizeable force in the country’s fragmented armed services, but an officer at the headquarters has conceded that his men do not have the means to block a Syrian advance, even if they wanted to. Withdrawal call "The Syrians are here because they want to stop the fighting,” the officer said. “They are here because thej ' see a danger of partition in I Lebanon. We would prefei to co-operate.” The Lebanese Left-win? leader, Mr Kamal Jumblatt

'said in a television interview last night that between 5000 and 9000 Syrian troops had .entered Lebanon disguised as (commandos of the Saiqa Palestinian group. [ “Now that the Lebanese (crisis is heading towards a ! solution, our Syrian brothers ! should help to bring about a 'further relaxation by withdrawing the Syrian Army (force,” Mr Jumblatt said. I In America, speaking at a news conference in Dallas during an election campaign tour through Texas, President Ford said that the United States was urging all (parties in and outside the Middle East to show restraint while the Lebanese tried to solve their problems. ! He had been asked about reports that Syria had sent, or might send, regular, troops into Lebanon, provok-! !ing an Israeli counter-move' and raising the spectre of another Middle East war. “We don’t expect that to happen, and we are in-j ! tensifying our efforts to pre-' (vent it,” Mr Ford said.

Truce extension?

According to Mr Jumblatt,] the 10-day cease-fire in Lebanon, which was due to end at noon tomorrow, may be' extended because of the pro-| gress being made 'on the I political front. 1 The Lebanese Parliament, yesterday took an essentiall step towards a political settlement to end the bloody! civil war that has cost 15,000 lives in a year: the 89 members who attended — nine! i others were absent —| ■ amended the Constitution I ■to allow Parliament to elect la new President immediately, thus paving the way for] President Franjieh to bow to (Left-wing demands for his! resignation. | But Mr Franjieh has not yet made it clear that he will I go, and a fierce clash near Parliament’s meeting place, I only four hours before the 'session began, showed how easily the country could; slither back into war. I According to a spokesman' | for the Right-wing Phalangist Party, the clash was between an extreme Right-wing Christian group and Palestinian (commandos who said that I they belonged to the pro--1 Syrian Saiqa organisation. At least 15 people are known to have been killed, land many wounded, in this l and other fighting yesterday. ■ In his television interview,]; after discussions with the!

special French envoy, Mr .Georges Gorse, Mr Jumblatt said that the amendment to | the Constitution would be promulgated, and that Parliament would elect a new (President within a week to 1 10 days. I Mr Jumblatt later presided over a meeting of Left-wing groups to review the possiibility of extending the truce.