Yasser Arafat today was skeptical about a peace plan announced by Syria and Saudi Arabia and said Palestinian rebels seeking his ouster were massing to attack his forces in Tripoli.
The plan announced jointly by the Syrian and Saudi foreign ministers called for a cease-fire and the withdrawal of all Palestinian guerrillas from the Tripoli area within two weeks.
Arafat said Thursday he agreed to a Saudi Arabian peace plan but would not leave until negotiators determine who controls the nearby Palestinian refugee camps of Beddawi and Nahr Al Bared.
Heavy machine gun and mortar clashes flared along Tripoli’s perimeter earlier today, prompting more civilians to flee the shattered city 42 miles north of Beirut.
‘Negotiations always go two ways,’ a tense-looking Arafat told reporters in his headquarters. ‘There are negotiations in the offices and negotiations in the field. War is a loud voice for politics.’
In Damascus, Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam said the four-point accord would be supervised by Tripoli’s own Higher Coordination Committee, which groups local militia and political factions.
Khaddam said the agreement called for a stable and permanent cease-fire in and around Tripoli, the use of peaceful methods to negotiate a political settlement, and the departure of all Palestinian guerrillas from Tripoli within two weeks from the day the plan is communicated to the warring factions.
Under the agreement, the Higher Coordination Committee, headed by former Lebanese Prime Minister Rashid Karami will supervise the implementation of the cease-fire and the departure of Palestinian fighters with their arms.
Khaddam said the Saudi Arabian and Syrian governments will provide Karami with all the assistance he needs to implement the agreement.
He did not elaborate but political sources said the assistance might include the dispatch of Arab observers to help police the cease-fire and the withdrawal of Palestinian forces from the city and the region around Tripoli.
