New effort to end city’s war

Press, 10 January 1983, Page 8

New effort to end city’s war

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Some progress appears to have been made towards ending persistent factional battles in the north Lebanese port of Tripoli after intensive talks between- Lebanese and Syrian politicians. But early yesterday radio stations were reporting that sporadic fighting was continuing in the city, where numerous previous cease-fire agreements have failed to stop the violence. Tripoli has been under the over-all control of Syrian troops since the end of the Lebanese civil war in 1976 and the fighting is the fiercest round in a long-running war between local pro and anti-Syrian factions.

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Mr Sharik Wazzan, held four hours of talks in Damascus with the Syrian President, Mr Hafez Assad.

The official Syrian news agency said that the two men had agreed that Leban-

ese internal security forces — paramilitary police units — should try to restore peace in the city. At the same time, leading politicians in Tripoli agreed with several key anti-Syrian groups that security in the city, should be entrusted to the Lebanese authorities. This appeared to indicate that a compromise could be in sight on using the Lebanese internal security forces to police Tripoli. Previously some of the anti-Syrian groups had insisted on the deployment in the city of the Lebanese Army, which has not operated in Tripoli since the

outbreak of the civil war in 1975.

Other anti-Syrian groups had agreed with the proSyrian militia that a joint force' drawn from all the warring factions should patrol the battle zones. Lebanese State television said that the head of the internal security forces, Hisham Sha’ar, would meet a senior -Syrian officer in Tripoli to--discuss further moves.

State radio said that one person had been killed in yesterday's clashes, bringing the death toll for the month of battles to nearly 170. In Beirut United Nations sources said that Lebanon was seeking a six-month renewal of the mandate of United Nations peace-keep-ing forces in southern Lebanon and a future expansion of their role and area of deployment. President Amin Gemayel made the request to the visiting United Nations Under-Secretary-General, Mr Brian Urquhart The mandate of the 7000-man United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, formed in 1978, will expire on January 19. The United Nations sources said that Lebanon had sought permission to have Unifil shifted from southern Lebanon eventually to work beside an expanded version of the Franco-Ameri-can-Italian peace force now in Beirut. Lebanon has made it clear that it wants the three-nation force expanded so it can move into areas vacated by Israeli troops.