The United States said today that it deplores both the Israeli air raid against Palestinian terrorist bases in Lebanon and “the violence against Israelis “that triggered it. In a statement issued both by the White House and the State Department, the Reagan Administration urged that the cease-fire across the Israeli-Lebanese border be maintained and nothing be done to violate its “spirit” as well as its terms.
Neither White House deputy press secretary Larry Speakes nor State Department spokesman Dean Fischer would elaborate on the statement. Fischer maintained that it did not differ from previous statements by the Administration on violations of the cease-fire which has been in effect since last July.
However, only the Israeli air raid was specifically mentioned today. Asked to list violations by others, Fischer replied: “It is understood by everyone involved that hostile acts against or from the area controlled by Major (Saad) Haddad are viewed as clear violations of the cease-fire.” He then noted that there had been reports of an Israeli soldier killed by a land mine in that area. This death was one of the justifications Israel gave for its air raid.
Speakes rejected the notion that the Israeli raid had embarrassed Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel Jr. who was in Israel at the time. He noted that Stoessel is in the Middle East in order to help Israel and Egypt with any last minute problems on Israel’s scheduled withdrawal from Sinai on Sunday. Fischer said the U.S. welcomes and was “pleased” by the Israeli Cabinet decision today to go ahead with the withdrawal as scheduled.
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