U.S. support for Lebanese President

Press, 20 November 1989, Page 8

U.S. support for Lebanese President

NZPA-Reuter Ehden, Lebanon The United States has put its weight firmly behind Lebanon’s new pro-Syrian President, sending its Ambassador to visit him and to lobby for a unity cabinet grouping the country’s warring factions. The United States Ambassador, John McCarthy, said the Christian Army chief, Michel Aoun, who rejected the internationally acclaimed election of President Rene Muawad, should be a “good soldier” and submit to civilian authority. “Lebanon has a long tradition of constitutional democracy. In that tradition as far as I know military officers have always followed the civilian authority,” Mr McCarthy said when he arrived on Saturday. “I would assume that like the good soldier that he is, he will very soon fall in line behind civilian authority.” It was - Mr McCarthy’s first visit to Lebanon' since he and the United States

i Embassy’s 29 staff members evacuated their compound in Christian east Beirut i on September 6 because of fears for 1 their safety during anti-American protests by General Aoun’s supporters. General Aoun, who is holding out in Lebanon’s Christian enclave, has dismissed President Muawad as a Syrian puppet and rejected an Arab peace accord to end 14 years of war because it does not ensure the swift withdrawal of Syria’s 33,000 troops from Lebanon. He began a “war of liberation” in March to drive Syria out of Lebanon, sparking six month battles that killed 860 people. Mr McCarthy met President Muawad at his home in the Syrian-held village of . Ehden 100 km north of Beirut. He also held talks with politicians and some 15 deputies in an effort‘to remove all obstacles preventing the formation of a national unity Cabinet, .