When President Reagan’s special envoy Philip Habib returns to the Middle East for his fourth peace-making mission since May, he will be dealing with the entire “future of Lebanon,” not just a particular crisis, a State Department spokesman said today.
Department spokesman Dean Fischer said he did not know when Habib would be returning to the area. Habib returned to Washington July 27 after negotiating a “cessation of hostilities” across the Israel-Lebanon border.
When Habib first went to the Mideast, it was to calm the tension caused by Syria’s placement of SAM-6 anti-aircraft missiles in Lebanon and Israel’s threat to remove them by force, Fischer pointed out. He said the mission was later expanded to include the violence across the Israeli-Lebanese border while Habib was on his third mission to the area.
One of the things the U.S. is considering is expanding the role of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) Fischer said, although he could not be specific on what the expansion would cover. He said that Habib presumably discussed this possibility
when he met with Secretary General Kurt Waldheim at the UN last week.
DISCUSSING WAYS TO STRENGTHEN LEBANON
Fischer said the US was discussing ways to strengthen the central government of Lebanon with the UN, its European allies, the members of the Arab League and “internal parties” in Lebanon.
He said one of the internal parties is Bashir Gemayel, commander of the Phalangist military force in Lebanon who is in Washington meeting with members of the Reagan Administration. Fischer, noting that Gemayel is a Christian, said the U.S. was involving all the religious communities and political groupings in Lebanon in the talks. He stressed that the parties do not include the Palestine Liberation Organization.
U.S. UNLIKELY TO CHANGE POLICY TOWARD PLO
Fisher had no comment on Egyptian President Anwar Sadat’s remarks today in London that he would ask the Reagan Administration to drop its condition of not contacting the Palestinians and for the U.S. to start a dialogue with the PLO. Fisher said he did not think this was a “new” position of the Egyptian President. He said the U.S. position against recognizing or dealing with the PLO is “unchanged.”
White House spokesman David Gergen said he did not foresee President Reagan altering U.S. policy because the President felt strongly that the PLO had to accept Israel’s right to exist.
U.S. TO LOOK INTO CHARGES BY ISRAEL
Meanwhile, Fischer said that Secretary of State Alexander Haig will look into charges by Israel that Saudi Arabia is supplying arms to the PLO in Lebanon. The charges were formally made by Israeli Ambassador Ephraim Evron when he met with Haig after yesterday’s ceremony in which Egypt and Israel signed an agreement for an international peacekeeping force in Sinai after Israel’s final pull-out in April 1982.
Evron told reporters that since the cease-fire the Saudis have been sending light arms to the PLO. He did not specify what kind of arms or whether they were American made. Evron said that the fact that the Saudis were sending not only money but arms to the PLO should negate the claim that they are moderates.
Evron told reporters he hoped that the 10 F-16 fighter-bombers which the U.S. held up delivering to Israel after the Israeli raid on the nuclear reactor in Iraq and the terrorist headquarters in Beirut, will be released soon. Fischer said last week a decision should be made by Aug. 10, the date when four more F-16s are scheduled to be flown to Israel.
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