State Department Insists There is No U.S. Plan to End Missile Crisis

The State Department continued to maintain today that there is no American plan for ending the current crisis in Lebanon, despite reports from Jerusalem that the Israeli government is considering proposals made by the United States.

“There is no such thing as an American plan for resolving the crisis or for defusing the tension,” State Department spokesman Dean Fischer repeated several times.

Fischer said that special envoy Philip Habib is “traveling from one country to another, working with the parties concerned in an effort to find a way to defuse the tension.” But the spokesman added that it served no purpose to talk of “an American plan or an Israeli plan or a Syrian plan or a Lebanese plan.” He said that Habib is discussing “ideas that are evolving from the discussions” with the three governments involved.

Fischer said he could not give any date when Habib would return to the United States. “As long as there is hope for a settlement or an agreement, he will stay,” he said.

While the Israelis have been talking about an American proposal, Syrian President Hafez Assad has denied that the Americans have made proposals to him. He told American reporters in Damascus today that all Habib has presented him was Israeli demands.

Meanwhile, Fischer noted that the United States considers that Saudi Arabia has “played a very helpful and constructive role” throughout the crisis. Habib was in Saudi Arabia last weekend and President Reagan met secretly on Saturday with Saudi Prince Turki Faisal, described as an adviser to King Khalid, on the situation in Lebanon.