Lebanese President Amin Gemayel met privately for two hours today with Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam on Syria’s demand that Gemayel scrap his troop withdrawal agreement with Israel.
The meeting in a penthouse suite of the Intercontinental Hotel came during a break in national reconciliation talks that have brought Lebanon’s factional leaders together for the first time since the 1975 civil war.
‘It did not go well at all,’ a high Lebanese government official said after the meeting between Gemayel and Khaddam. Only a stenographer was present.
The official said Khaddam said Damascus wanted to retain ‘influence’ in Lebanese territory occupied by Syrian forces and that reconciliation was possible only if Gemayel scrapped his May 13 troop withdrawal agreement with Israel.
Lebanese government officials and Western diplomatic observers said the Gemayel-Khaddam meeting was the first such face-to-face contact at top level since the Israeli invasion last year.
‘The future of Lebanon depends to a great extent on whether any understanding can be reached between the Gemayal government and Syria,’ one diplomatic observer said.
