Secretary of State George Shultz was locked in round-the-clock discussions with Israeli officials last night and today following his return from meetings with Lebanese leaders in Beirut yesterday.
Shultz apparently is trying to bridge the gap between various points in dispute between Israel and Lebanon. He and Israeli leaders were said to be slowly and exhaustively examining the texts of an evolving agreement, line by line before Shultz returns to Beirut for further talks, probably tomorrow.
He is also expected to visit Damascus on Thursday to test the Syrian position which is said to be hardening and which could derail any Israeli-Lebanese agreement by Syrian refusal to pull its forces out of Lebanon.
Against that background, Israeli officials refrained from expressing optimism. Some issues have been resolved but “many problems” remained, they said today.
MORE MEETINGS SLATED
Shultz met with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Moshe Arens for over an hour this morning. That meeting was followed by six hours of non-stop talks with the two ministers and teams of civilian and military aides. After a short break, the Secretary of State met with Premier Menachem Begin, with both Shamir and Arens present. He is scheduled for another round of meetings at the Foreign Ministry tonight.
Shultz had meetings with Shamir and Arens immediately after his return from Beirut yesterday and met privately with Begin last night. No aides were present. Israeli officials said Shultz discussed his talks in Beirut with the team of Israeli negotiators who, along with Lebanese and American delegates have been engaged in tripartite talks for the past four months without resolving the major outstanding differences.
‘NEW FORMULATIONS’ FROM BEIRUT
According to the officials, Shultz briefed the negotiators on some of the “new formulations” he brought back from Beirut. These were said to deal with arrangements for joint Israeli-Lebanese inspection teams in the security zone north of Israel’s border after Israeli forces withdraw from Lebanon.
But Shultz declined to discuss with the lower echelon negotiators some of the more sensitive issues such as the future status of Israel’s ally, Maj. Saad Haddad or the implications of the Soviet-backed Syrian arms build-up and its influence on Lebanon.
Presumably, those issues were taken up today with Begin, Shamir and Arens. But there was no indication that Shultz succeeded in resolving the differences between Lebanon and Israel over Haddad whom Israel wants placed in supreme command of security forces in south Lebanon after it pulls its army out.
The Syrian attitude is also a source of serious concern here, especially after President Hafez Assad’s tough statement today following his meeting with the Lebanese Foreign Minister, Elie Salem. Israeli sources said Syria was clearly applying pressure on Lebanon to hold out against Israeli demands and this was a major problem in bringing the negotiations to a successful conclusion.
FRIENDLY ATMOSPHERE MARKS TALKS
Israeli officials stressed that the talks with Shultz were being conducted in a “very warm atmosphere, as between friends and allies.” They were less enthusiastic in their assessment of the progress achieved to date. But sources close to Begin were said to be confident that a basic accord will be reached before Shultz leaves the region.
The Secretary of State told reporters over the weekend that he would like to be in Paris next Monday, May 9, to attend a NATO meeting. This would give him barely a week to wrap up an agreement between Israel and Lebanon and assess Syria’s intentions.
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