Beirut solution hinges on return of Israeli pitot

Press, 19 August 1982, Page 8

Beirut solution hinges on return of Israeli pitot

NZPA Beirut The withdraw! of Palestinian guerrillas depended on the unconditional release of an Israeli pilot by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, the'lsraeli Defence Minister (Mr Ariel Sharon) said yesterday.

Speaking on the armed forces radio, he said that no Palestinians would leave Beirut, and no multinational force would be deployed there, before the unconditional return of the pilot, Aharon Ahiaz, held prisoner by the P.L.O. “We reject any bargaining on this subject and we believe that Philip Habib shares our point of view,” he said. ■

Mr Sharon had conferred with Mr Habib, the American mediator, in Beirut earlier yesterday and said later that agreement was near for the removal of the guerrillas and their Syrian allies from the besieged Lebanese capital. Mr Sharon, chief planner of Israel’s June 6 push into Lebanon, said that progress was made on two other remaining outstanding issues, but “further clarification is necessary." Mr Habib was understood to have gone to Damascus and State television reported that he would arrive in Jerusalem from Syria today.

How soon the two-months-long negotiations on the guerrilla and Syrian withdrawal from Beirut will be concluded apparently depends partly on the answers Mr Habib brings from Damascus. Mr Sharon said one of the issues requiring clarification concerned withdrawal of Syrian units from the Lebanese capital. The other issue concerned how to list guerrillas to be removed from Beirut. Israel

also wants the bodies of nine soldiers killed in the fighting in June and in the 1978 invasion of Lebanon.

Israeli interest in a listing of guerrillas is based on the fear that some of them will be left behind with false identity papers to form new underground fighting units. “We are approaching our greatest military achievement — the rooting out of the terrorists from their headquarters in Beirut after removing them from south Lebanon,” Mr Sharon said. . Mr Sharon, who was stripped of the authority to use the Air Force against the guerrillas after- last week's heavy aerial bombardments on Beirut, called on Israelis to be strong and patient as the negotiations approach their conclusion. The Lebanese Prime Minister (Mr Shafiq Wazzan) was hopeful about ah early end'to the conflict after separate meetings yesterday with Mr Habib and a representative of the P.L.O.

“I think today we reached, on paper, the end of our sorrows,” he told reporters.

The Cabinet would meet today and an announcement would be made of what had been agreed upon, and after that “we hope to start the implementation.” The Cabinet is expected to approve a formal request for troops from France, Italy, and the United States to oversee the operation.

As the negotiators worked on the final touches to the peace plan, there were signs that the Israelis were easing their blockade of west Beriut, where thousands of civilians have been trapped with the guerrillas. Travellers arriving from the Israeli-occupied east side of the capital reported that checkpoints at the main crossing point between the

two sides had been removed.

Lebanese politicians, meanwhile, were turning their attention to a.Presidential election due to be held today to find a successor to Elias Sarkis, whose term of office will expire on September 23.

The only candidate to declare himself so far is Bashir Gemayei, commander of the country’s Right-wing Christian militia which has welcomed the Israelis as allies in the struggle against the Palestinians. Some Muslim and Leftist leaders have called for the election to be postponed.

In New York, the United Nations Security Council yesterday voted to extend for two months the international peace-keeping force in Lebanon (Unifil), giving it a role in the country until October 19.

The extension was passed by 13 votes to none, with two abstentions. the Soviet Union's and Poland's, at a three-minute meeting without debate.

On Cyprus, a group calling itself "an international commission of inquiry into Israeli crimes against the Lebanese and’ Palestinian peoples" ended a two-day conference yesterday.

Accusing Israel of genocide against the Lebanese and Palestinian people, the group called for an immediate and unconditional Israeli withdrawal, and appealed to Israeli soldiers “to help stop this abominable war.”

The group said it would present its findings to the United Nations and the. United States Congress. The auspices under which the group was set up, and who appointed the members, are not clear.