Robert McFarlane, President Reagan’s special envoy to the Middle East, ended his first round of talks with Israeli leaders today, saying that he was leaving for Beirut with ideas which he heard in Israel. He met this morning with Premier Menachem Begin and yesterday with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Moshe Arens.
After meeting with Begin, McFarlane said his talks here were “very useful” because it gave him “a good understanding” of the different approaches between Israel and Lebanon. This understanding, he said, “held a promise of progress.” The most “urgent priority” was the withdrawal of all foreign troops from Lebanon, McFarlane said.
In his two days of talks here, the U.S. envoy tried to convince the Israelis that the U.S. has no intention of exerting pressure on Israel for a unilateral withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon or for a change in its agreement with Lebanon which both countries signed last May. McFarlane said that in addition to visiting Beirut again, after making that his first stop this week upon his arrival in the Mideast, he would also visit other Arab capitals in the next few days.
There was some indication here yesterday when McFarlane arrived, that the U.S. was seeking more concessions from Israel to help solve the crisis in Lebanon where Christian Phalangists and Druze have been fighting each other and where battles have been raging between Palestine Liberation Organization factions.
Israeli circles felt the U.S. was applying pressure on Israel to publish a comprehensive timetable for the withdrawal of its forces from Lebanon. McFarlane told Shamir and Arens that President Amin Gemayel of Lebanon had raised this issue with him. The envoy said Gemayel made it clear that he does not believe Israel wants to partition Lebanon, but public opinion in Lebanon is seeking assurances to this effect and a published timetable would be reassuring.
Shamir and Arens both rejected this concept, and reiterated Israel’s position that it has no intention of remaining in Lebanon longer than necessary, that its forces would leave as soon as the Syrian and PLO forces left. They also reiterated Israel’s position that the redeployment of its forces in southern Lebanon was part of a phased withdrawal.
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