The State Department said today that U.S. special envoy Philip Habib will be in the Middle East next week in another effort to ease tensions in Lebanon.
Department deputy spokesman Alan Romberg said Habib has already left the country on a private trip before going to the Middle East. It will be the retired diplomat’s sixth mission to the region in the past 12 months as President Reagan’s special emissary for the Lebanese crisis.
Habib helped engineer the cease-fire along the Israel-Lebanon border which went into effect last July 24. On his latest trip however, he is expected to bring concrete proposals for dealing with the overall situation in that war-tom country. This was intimated by Secretary of State Alexander Haig in his Middle East policy speech in Chicago May 27 when he said “The time has come to take concerted action in support of both Lebanon’s territorial integrity within its intentionally recognized borders and a strong central government capable of promoting a free, open, democratic society.”
Haig said that was the reason the President “directed Ambassador Habib to return to the Middle East soon to discuss our ideas for such action, with has been a trouble-shooter for several Administrations, was called out of retirement by Reagan a year ago to defuse the crisis that arose from Syria’s deployment of anti-aircraft missiles in eastern Lebanon and Israel’s threat to destroy them.
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