Palestinian chiefs call for Bekaa cease-fire

Press, 5 August 1983, Page 6

Palestinian chiefs call for Bekaa cease-fire

NZPA-Reuter Tunis Palestinian leaders decided yesterday that a special committee should be set up to arrange and supervise a cease-fire in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley between supporters and opponents of the Palestine Liberation Organisation chief, Yasser Arafat.

Speaking to reporters after the first session of the 81-member P.L.O. Central Council, its chairman, Mr Khaled Fahoum, said that it had denounced armed clashes between Palestinians, “Guns must be aimed back at the Zionist enemy that occupies Palestine,

Lebanon and the Golan,” he said.

Palestinian sources said that Mr' Arafat, who is facing a challenge to his leadership from within his own Fatah guerrilla group, had scored an early success in persuading leaders of other Palestinian factions to attend the council meeting. The council occupies an intermediary place between the P.L.O. executive committee and the Palestinian National Council. Sources said that the presence of faction leaders such as Georges Habash and Nayef Hawatmeh would add weight to the call for Palestinian unity which was

likely to emerge from the meeting. It was the first time that. Mr Habash, who is based in Damascus, had visited Tunis since it became the headquarters of the P.L.O. after the withdrawal of P.L.O. guerrillas from Israeli-be-sieged Beirut last year.

The central council was meeting to discuss a draft agenda.

The committee was asked to seek a solution to the Fatah dispute and resolve differences between the Palestinians and Syria. Mr Arafat has accused Syria of intervening in favour of Fatah dissidents demanding a more radical P.L.O. policy.