Government sources said today that Israel is fairly satisfied with the progress of the Israel-Lebanon negotiations to date even though a stalemate persists over the definition of the “normalization” item on the agenda.
Speaking after the weekly Cabinet session, the sources stressed the very warm atmosphere that had prevailed during the first two rounds of the talks, at Khalde in Lebanon and Kiryat Shmona last week. There is to be another round at Khalde tomorrow where renewed efforts will be made to resolve the normalization issue.
The Cabinet is understood to have confirmed the earlier policy-line adopted by Premier Menachem Begin and Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon; That Israel can forego the use to the word “normalization” but it insists on retaining the concept as an item on the agenda.
On Thursday the delegations made unsuccessful efforts to find acceptable substitutes for “normalization.” Lebanon’s use of the term “future relations” is unsatisfactory to Israel and Israel’s proposal of “normal bilateral relations” Is rejected by Lebanon.
The Israeli government sources stressed the complexity of the political situation inside Lebanon which reflects itself in the caution and hesitancy of Beirut’s negotiators.
NO PROGRESS KNOWN ON WITHDRAWAL TALKS
There was no confirmation here of reports from Beirut that the senior U.S. special envoy Philip Habib, will be back in the area this Wednesday and will lead the American team at Thursday’s session at Kiryat Shmona. Nor was there any word here of progress on the parallel front: that of diplomacy aimed at the withdrawal of Israeli and Syrian forces from Lebanon.
When Habib was in the region in December he spoke with some optimism of the prospects, but Cabinet sources said nothing further had been heard from the Americans. Withdrawal of foreign forces is to be an item on the Israel-Lebanon talks agenda. Israel assumes that Lebanon will conduct parallel discussions with the Syrians.
Cabinet sources were tight-lipped about reports of an Israel-Palestine Liberation Organization indirect dialogue over a prisoner exchange. The sources said Israeli policymakers invested enormous effort — through a variety of unconventional means and contacts — to make headway on this issue. But they refused to confirm or deny reports that Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and leftwing Israeli politician Arieh Eliav are involved in these efforts.
CABINET BRIEFED ON VIOLENCE IN LEBANON
The Cabinet heard extensive reports from army officers and intelligence officials on the situation in the Shouf mountains, where violence between Christians and Druze is taking a toll of local lives, sometimes involving Israeli soldiers.
Today’s Cabinet communique said the ministers heard of “steps taken to maintain security in the area and to increase precautionary measures to avoid IDF soldiers being hit.” Cabinet sources stressed that in fact only very few IDF men had been hit in the Shouf; most of Israel’s casualties currently are in the coastal area or around Aley village, near the Beirut-Damascus road.
The sources said Israel was determined to retain its deployment in the Shouf range until Syria indicated its readiness for a mutual partial pull back in which both armies would vacate the mountains, Israel south-wards and westwards and Syria eastwards.
Israel’s position is that no such pullback can take place unless its prisoners of war and missing soldiers are first restored and until the PLO’s estimated 6-7,000 fighters in Lebanon leave the country.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
