U.S. threat angers Lebanese

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 10

U.S. threat angers Lebanese

NZPA-AP Beirut An American threat to close Beirut’s airport in retaliation for the 17-day hijack hostage affair united Lebanon’s warring Christians and Muslims in protests yesterday. A former president, Suleiman Franjieh, urged that all links with Washington be cut. Politicians on both sides of Lebanon’s sectarian divide denounced an American State Department announcement that the Reagan Administration had undertaken “legal action and diplomatic steps” to close Beirut airport to international

travel. “America’s policies are based on aggression and oppression,” the Prime Minister, Mr Rashid Karami said. “Lebanon cannot remain silent toward such boldfaced aggression and there are measures we are going to take in response.” Mr Karami, a Sunni Muslim who also serves as foreign Minister, declined to specify what his coalition Government planned to do. But a Foreign Ministry official said that Lebanon’s Ambassador to Washington, Mr Abdallah Buhabib, had been ordered to lodge a formal protest against the American action

with the State Department. “Why does Beirut International Airport have to pay the price for a hijacking that originated in Athens?” Mr Karami said. He listed a series of bombings against American installations in Europe and asked why Mr Reagan had not retaliated against those countries. As well as seeking to close Beirut airport, the United States hinted that it wo'bld strike against terrorist camps or support bases in the Middle East. Britain indicated that it would support the American stance. The Foreign Office said, “We believe urgent diplomatic action is needed

by the international community to ensure that the terrorists are unable to use Beirut airport as a means of launching attacks outside Lebanon.” Mr Franjieh, a Maronite Christian ally of Syria, told a news conference that Mr Reagan “thinks he is a saint and accuses others of terrorism”. He urged the Government, to “sever diplomatic ties with the Government of ‘Saint Reagan,’ which only bows to the Israeli vagabonds”. The Finance Minister, Mr Camille Chamoun, also a Maronite, said, “Americans have been kidnapped, attacked and slaughtered in

Latin America, Spain, Germany and elsewhere. Their Government did nothing.” United States Defence Department sources said that the United States Navy battle group led by the aircraft-carrier Nimitz would remain in the eastern Mediterranean off Lebanon for now. The sources said that they knew of no plans to use the Navy for any retaliatory raid. Salim Salam, chairman of Middle East Airlines, which will be the main victim of the American action, said that Washington’s decision would cost the airline about £ Leb3 a day (approx. $400,000).