Proposals aim to end peace deadlock

Press, 23 October 1989, Page 8

Proposals aim to end peace deadlock

NZPA-Reuter Taif Lebanon’s Christian deputies on Saturday discussed fresh proposals aimed at breaking the deadlock in peace talks with their Muslim counterparts. But a source close to the Christian leader, General Michel Aoun, rejected the proposals as a trap aimed at perpetuating Syrian control of Lebanon.

The new points, amending an Arab League peace plan unveiled in May, were negotiated in Damascus between the Syrian President, Hafez al-Assad, and Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal.

The three-week-long talks in Taif between 62, Christian and Muslim deputies have stalled over the issue of a Syrian troop withdrawal, for which General Aoun insists on an accelerated timetable.

Syria has agreed only to move its 33,000 troops, now deployed over two-

thirds of Lebanon, to the Bekaa valley in the east two years after political reforms are enacted. The amendments, as reported by Christian deputies, appeared to go some way to meeting Christian demands by providing for greater Lebanese involvement in deciding the future of Syrian troops.

But they did not address the issue of a timetable.

The new points included the stipulation that the Syrian and Lebanese governments would decide “together” on Syrian troop redeployment, while the original said Syria would decide “in coordination” with Lebanon.

“What happened so far represents important and positive steps although they do not meet our demands,” a leading Christian deputy told Reuters. Political sources in Beirut have predicted fresh fighting if there is a breakdown in the talks, convened after the Arab League mediated a ceasefire in six months of artillery duels in and around the Lebanese capital. About 850 people were killed and more than 3,000 wounded in the battles which erupted in midMarch when General Aoun declared a "war of liberation” against Syrian troops.