Secretary of State Alexander Haig seems to agree with Premier Menachem Begin that there is a time limit for President Reagan’s special envoy, Philip Habib, to successfully complete his mission aimed at resolving the current crisis over Lebanon. But the State Department quickly stressed today that Haig did not mean there is a “deadline.”
Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Dean Fischer said there was still no date set for Habib to return to the Middle East, although the envoy is still scheduled to go this week. He had no explanation for this.
Haig’s comment was made last night at the concluding session of the State Department’s two-day national foreign policy conference for American editors and broadcasters. When Haig was asked about Begin’s statement that there is a time limit for Habib to convince the Syrians to remove their SAM-6 anti-aircraft missiles from Lebanon, Haig replied that he could not comment on the public statements of the parties involved in the crisis.
“I do think there is a time limit,” Haig then added. “There is a limit because there has been a change in the status quo. From that point of view, one might say there is some urgency — although I don’t call it an immediate sense of urgency. But there is a time limit to achieving some progress, and I’m hopeful we will.”
WHAT HAIG MEANT
Fischer explained today that what Haig meant was that there “is a time limit in a sense there is some urgency in defusing the situation but he did not mean to say that he set any deadline for our efforts.”
Haig also noted yesterday that the Habib mission aimed “in the near term a return to the status quo ante — and I’m talking about a return to the situation that has existed de facto and formally as well since 1976.” Fischer refused to spell out what Haig specifically meant by return to the status quo. But for Israel, and at certain stages it appeared also the United States, it has meant the removal of the missiles, as well as the evacuation by the Syrian army of two strategic mountain points and the Christian village of Zahle. It was the Syrian attack against Zahle that started the current crisis.
Fischer repeated today his statements of yesterday that the U.S. believes that “military action of any kind is not helpful to the peace process” and “absolutely no green lights” were given by the U.S. to anyone for any military action. He refused to comment on whether the U.S. approved of the Israeli raids on Palestinian terrorist bases in Lebanon.
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