Lebanese foes to resume talks

Press, 6 March 1984, Page 10

Lebanese foes to resume talks

NZPA-AFP Damascus Lebanese Government and opposition factions had agreed to resume the suspended national reconciliation conference in Geneva next Monday, it was announced in Damascus yesterday after talks between Lebanese and Syrian leaders.

The announcement was made by Assem Anso, secre-tary-general of Lebanon’s pro-Syrian Baath Party, and it was believed that Syria would be present with influential “observer” status, as at the initial abortive re-

conciliation session last year. Mr Anso said that within a matter of hours the Lebanese President, Mr Amin Gemayel, would announce the unilateral abrogation of a United Statesbacked troop-withdrawal agreement signed with Israel in May last

year but rejected by Syria. After discussions in Damascus between Lebanese leaders and the Syrian Foreign Minister, Mr Abdel Halim Khaddam, “a total cease-fire” in Lebanon

would soon be announced, Mr Anso said. In Beirut the official Lebanese radio announced that the quadripartite security committee — consisting of the Lebanese Army and the principal Christian, Druse and Shi’ite Muslim militias — would be reactivated within 48 hours to consolidate the cease-fire agreement. Syria and the rebels insist that the accord with Israel be cancelled as a precondition for talks on an over-all political settlement because they say it infringes

on Lebanon’s Arab identity.

Right-wing Christians regard abrogation as an unacceptable concession to Syrian pressure and have told Mr Gemayel, a Maronite Christian, that they will oppose the dropping of the agreement.

The level of clashes on battlefronts between Druse and Shi’ite rebel forces and between the Lebanese Army and Christian militias was markedly lower yesterday compared with previous days.