Syria’s allies in Lebanon try to block partition

Press, 30 September 1988, Page 8

Syria’s allies in Lebanon try to block partition

NZPA-Reuter Beirut Syria’s allies in Lebanon will meet to try to prevent the partition of the country, where a car bomb yesterday killed three people and wounded 19, including a Syrian officer and four soldiers. Christian and Muslim deputies, former Ministers and former heads of State, most of them allied to Damascus, were to attend the meeting, called an “emergency national conference", ,at west Beirut’s Bristol Hotel. Syrian troops ringed the five-storey hotel, which is used,, as a base by proSyridn Lebanese politi-

cians and located in the heart of west Beirut. Muslim political sources said few of the 41 Christian parliamentary deputies were expected to attend the meeting, called by the Speaker, Hussein Husseini. They said the boycott could limit the conference’s chances of success in ending a struggle between two rival governments vying for power since Parliament failed to elect a new president on September 22. The struggle plunged Lebanon, devastated by 13 years of civil war, deeper into chaos and added to fears of partition. _

On the eve of the meeting a pick-up truck laden with explosives blew up near a Syrian checkpoint at the Khalde junction, a strategic route south of Beirut linking the capital to the south and the mountains. Police said the blast killed three civilians and wounded 19 people including a Syrian officer and four soldiers. Witnesses said Syrian troops fanned out into the surrounding hills after the blast the latest in a series of attacks apparently aimed at undermining Syria’s roie in Lebanon where it has 25,000 troops.