P.M. to try to reunite shattered Lebanon

Press, 22 July 1980, Page 8

P.M. to try to reunite shattered Lebanon

NZPA-Reuter s Beirut Lebanon’s new Prime Minister (Mr Takieddine Solh) is consulting with para-military chiefs and political leaders on the formation of a government of national unity. Mr Solh, who is 71. was appointed at the week-end by President Elias Sarkis as part of a programme for rebuilding entente in Lebanon, shattered by- five years of sectarian violence. The idea is to bring the heads of the main Christian and Muslim factions into the government. But the move takes place against a background of recent bitter inter-Christian clashes, and political sources say negotiations on the composition of the new Cabinet may be lengthy because of the entrenched positions of the sides involved.

Considered a moderate and a conciliator, Mr Solh succeeds Selim Hoss, aged 51, a banker turned politician, who resigned last month after more than 34 years in office. Mr Solh, identified by the fez he wears continuously in public, visited Dr Hoss at the week-end as part of initial contacts with previous Prime Ministers. Under Lebanese con-i stitutional tradition, the! Prime Minister is always a| Sunni Muslim, the President! a Maronite Christian, and! parliamentary Speaker a; Shiite Muslim. Lebanon is, roughly divided in half between Christians and Muslims. Talks on forming the new government have been going , on sporadically since March when President Sarkis an-| nounced a 14-point declara-

tion of principles on national accord which he . said must be accepted by every member of the proposed Cabinet. Prospects for national reconciliation took a severe blow earlier this month? when the Right-wing Falangist Party seized almost total control of the country’s Christian sectors in a wellplanned military against the rival National (Liberal Party. I An estimated 300 people idied in the operation. I And at the week-end. the day Mr Soh. a former Prime . Minister in the pre-civil war period under President Suleiman Franjieh, was appointed, there were clashes between Palestinians and the Shiite militia, Amal. Security sources reported that three people died in the shooting.