Haig persuades Israel to delay planned attack

Press, 12 February 1982, Page 6

Haig persuades Israel to delay planned attack

NZPA Washington The United States has persuaded Israel to hold off a planned, truce-shattering invasion of southern Lebanon while it works through Arab governments to try to stop the Palestine Liberation Organisation from violating the cease-fire, diplomatic sources have said.

Israel has built up its forces along the Lebanese border and was poised to attack until the Secretary of State (Mr Alexander Haig) told an Israeli emissary in Washington last week that striking Palestinian bases in southern Lebanon might destabilise the entire region, the sources said.

Mr Haig counselled patience, saying Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and possibly other Arab countries would be asked to urge the P.L.O. to respect the cease-fire arranged in July by the American mediator, Philip Habib. . The sources said that Mr Habib would be sent back to the Middle East in about 10 days to try to prevent renewed fighting prompted by a Palestinian military build•up and a guerrilla crossing of the frontier with Jordan late last month.

Israel massed troops along the Lebanese border after Palestinian guerrillas cut through electronic fences on

the Jordanian frontier on January 28. One squad planted mines and went back to Jordan. A second fled into, the Israeli-occupied West Bank where the guerrillas were seized two days later in a shoot-out The Israeli emissary, Major-General Yehoshuah Saguy, chief of military intelligence, gave Mr Haig information about new shipments of Soviet artillery and tanks to the P.L.0., as well as transfers of guns and ammunition from Libya and Saudi Arabia. General Saguy is reported to have told Mr Haig that the Palestinians last month increased their artillery strength from 200 to 500 pieces and nearly doubled their tank force from 33 or 34 to 70. Some of the new tanks are Tsss, a more advanced weapon than the T34s already in Palestinian hands. In Amman, Jordan, a senior official travelling with the United States Defence Secretary (Mr Caspar Weinberger) said yesterday that the United States had adopted a tougher policy line towards Israel. The senior official said the Administration believed that “we simply have to balance our interests throughout the entire Middle East”