Beirut talks to resume

Press, 8 March 1984, Page 10

Beirut talks to resume

NZPA-Reuter Beirut The Lebanese Government has started issuing invitations to the eight politicians expected to attend national reconciliation talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne next week. An official announcement yesterday said that the politicians — three Christians and five Muslims — would be the same as those who attended a first round of talks in Geneva late last year.

All those invited have indicated that they are prepared to take part in the talks, although a former President, Camille Chamoun, a Christian, said that he had not taken a final decision. The last obstacle to resumed talks was overcome on Monday, when the Gemayel Government abrogated its troop withdrawal agreement with Israel. That has been a long-standing demand of the Lebanese opposition and its ally, Syria, which will take part

in the conference as an observer.

At the Geneva talks Syria was represented by its experienced Foreign Minister, Mr Abdel Halim Khaddam, who has traditionally managed Syrian policy in Lebanon. But Mr Khaddam and the rest of the Syrian Cabinet have resigned to make way for a new government, and it was not ■ immediately clear if he would attend this time.

The official Syrian news Agency, Sana, said that the President, Mr Hafez Assad, had asked Dr Abdel-Rauf Kasm, his Prime Minister since January, 1980, to stay on and form the new government.

The Israeli Defence Minister, Mr Moshe Arens, hinted yesterday that Israel had not ruled out talks with Beirut on alternative security arrangements for south Lebanon.

Under the agreement Israel would have had the right to patrol inside Lebanese territory, but in its

abrogation statement the Beirut Government offered Israel only guarantees that it would protect the border from guerrilla infiltration once Israeli troops had withdrawn. In Jerusalem Israeli officials moved quickly to study military policy proposals for troop deployments in south Lebanon. A senior official said that Lebanon’s scrapping of the accord had accelerated the need for a decision on security arrangements in south Lebanon, which Israel would take unilaterally without seeking a new agreement with Beirut. A military source said that the Army had already submitted all its policy options and that the final decision rested with the Government.

Avi Pazner, the spokesman for the Prime Minister, denied that Israel would be prepared to renegotiate the scrapped accord or negotiate a new one in its place.