Foreign Minister Abba Eban met with US Ambassador Walworth Barbour this afternoon over Sunday’s Israeli air raids on terrorist bases In Lebanon and Syria. The American envoy expressed US concern over the raids, sources here said. Eban, who had asked for the meeting with Barbour, stressed that Israeli policy toward the terrorists was based on the premise that the terrorists have declared war on Israel.
Sources said Eban told Barbour that Israeli policy is not to let the terrorists know when or how Israeli forces will strike at them. After the 40-min-ute meeting, Israeli sources intimated unofficially that the US seemed to be “going through the motions” to satisfy Lebanese sensibilities. There were no hints even unofficially, that Israel was concerned by the American attitude.
(The latest air raids were discussed in Washington yesterday by Israeli Ambassador Yitzhak Rabin and US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Joseph J. Sisco at a luncheon meeting at Rabin’s residence. Sisco met later with Lebanese Ambassador Najati Kabbani. State Department spokesman Charles Bray said today that he would not characterize the atmosphere at the meetings.)
(He said, however, that the State Department was “fairly well satisfied with the facts” as they were presented by the Lebanese Ambassador. State Department officials acknowledged today that the question of Security Council action was discussed at both meetings. The Lebanese government has Instructed its UN Ambassador to lodge a formal complaint with the Security Council but Lebanon so far has not asked for an emergency session of that body.)
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