The European Economic Community gave its strong backing today to a French plan to create a United Nations peacekeeping force in Beirut to replace the multinational force, most of which has been withdrawn.
The foreign ministers of the 10 EEC member-states, at a one-day meeting here, urged the United Nations Security Council to act immediately to set up such a force. They also called on the various warring factions in Lebanon to observe a cease-fire and to meet again in Geneva to work out their difference and establish a central Lebanese government that could guarantee the country’s independence and territorial integrity.
France, which is sponsoring a resolution in the Security Council for a UN force in Beirut, is the only member of the multinational force that still has troops in the Lebanese capital.
The British pulled their small contingent out earlier this month, the Italians did likewise a week ago and most of the 1,600 U.S. marines completed their transfer yesterday to ships of the Sixth Fleet off-shore. A small marine detachment remains in Beirut to guard the U.S. Embassy.
Israeli Premier Yitzhak Shamir said at his meetings with EEC officials in Brussels last week that Israel does not oppose a UN force in Beirut. He made clear, however, that Israel prefers to take care of its own security needs in south Lebanon and suggested that the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) be transferred from the south to Beirut to act as a buffer between rival Moslem: and Christian militias.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
