President Reagan said the best way to prevent such incidents as occurred between a U.S. marine and Israeli troops is “to expedite” the withdrawal of all foreign forces from Lebanon.
“These incidents are the type of thing that can happen,” the President said at a brief White House press conference last Friday, which was called to enable the President to announce a drop in the unemployment rate. “The best answer to them (the incidents) is for the Israelis, the Syrians and what remnants of the PLO there are to go back beyond their own borders.”
Although Reagan said the U.S. has “assurances” from Israel that the incident will not reoccur, he directly blames the Israelis for trying to penetrate the marines lines. He said the same Israeli commander had tried to go through the same line three times. The marine officer who brandished his revolver to stop three Israeli tanks Wednesday did the “only thing he could do,” Reagan said.
He stressed that the U.S. and other contingents of the multinational force are in Lebanon at the request of the Lebanese government so that government can “try to establish stability.” He added that he believed “our forces are behaving very well.” Reagan repeated his often stated position that he could not “set any time” for how long the marines would have to be in Lebanon.
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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.
