State Department Says Lebanese Government Cannot Regain Its Sovereignty Until PLO Departs

The State Department stressed today that it believes the Lebanese government cannot regain full sovereignty until the Palestine Liberation Organization Leaves west Beirut. “We do feel that the departure of the PLO is a necessary prerequisite for the re-assertion of the Lebanese government’s authority in west Beirut,” Department spokesman Dean Fischer said. “The two are inextricably linked,” he observed.

But Fischer noted that Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger said in a television appearance yesterday that if a contingent of U.S. troops is sent into west Beirut, they will be there for only a limited time and would not remain until the Lebanese government exerted its full authority.

The purpose of a U.S. contingent, part of an international force which so far is believed to include only France, would be to “assist the Lebanese armed forces in overseeing the safe and orderly departure of the PLO,” Fischer said. “While this was going on and immediately thereafter, the Lebanese security forces would be establishing Lebanese government authority in west Beirut, ” he added.

Fischer said that President Reagan’s special envoy in Lebanon, Philip Habib, was negotiating with Lebanese officials in Beirut today. He said the negotiations about the PLO’s departure are “complicated” and it is not yet known how long such a departure would take.

REAGAN HOPEFUL ON NEGOTIATIONS

Reagan, flying back from his California vacation yesterday, said he was hopeful the negotiations would be successful. “We’ve been disappointed before, ” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “I think there are reasons for optimism.”

The President said he expects Americans to be wary about his offer to send up to 1000 troops into Lebanon. “I am wary myself and that is why we want to impose certain conditions, ” he said. Those conditions would be that the Americans would go in, as Weinberger said yesterday, at “minimum risk” and for a short period, probably 30 days. The troops probably would be marines from the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

However, the President’s offer so far is only “in principle” since he said he must first receive an invitation from the Lebanese government which would probably come only if the negotiations now going on in Beirut are completed successfully.

Fischer refused to comment today on a Time magazine report that Reagan had threatened, in a letter to Israeli Premier Menachem Begin, to talk directly to the PLO if Israel did not restore water and electricity to west Beirut.

Fischer noted that Habib does not talk directly to the PLO in Beirut but some of the Lebanese officials with whom he negotiates do. “There certainly has been no change in our long-standing policy with respect to the PLO,” the State Department spokesman said.

Asked to re-state that policy, Fischer replied, “We are prepared to talk to them if they recognize Israel’s right to exist and if they accept (United Nations Security Council) Resolutions 242 and 338.” Previously the U.S. always said it would not talk to the PLO unless those conditions were met . Fischer said, in reply to a question that his not using the negative approach did not imply any change.

It was reported, meanwhile, that one of the concerns of the PLO men is what will happen to their families and other Palestinians if they leave west Beirut. They fear the Palestinians will face danger from the Christian Phalangists. Fischer implied this might be the reason the U.S. contingent would stay more than the few days it would take the PLO to leave.

He noted that one of the details being worked out in the negotiations was how long after the PLO leaves the U.S. forces would leave. He repeated that the purpose of the U.S. force would be to oversee the orderly departure of the PLO and “We would expect all parties in the area to respect that purpose.”