SYRIAN FOREIGN MINISTER KHADDAM ATTENDS TALK WITH LEBANON’S MARONITE CHRISTIAN LEADERS IN ATTEMPT TO FIND PEACE FORMULA TO END FACTIONAL FIGHTING.
Syrian Foreign Minister Abdel-Halim Khaddam continued his mediating mission seeking on and to the factional fighting in neighboring on Tuesday when he attended a series of talks with Christian Maronite leaders at the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki, north of Beirut.
The meeting was part of Mr. Khaddam’s negotiations to achieve a ceasefire between the predominantly Christian rightwing Falangist forces and leftwing Moslems… the third attempt in less than a week.
At Bkirki, the Syrian Foreign Minister conferred with Falangist leader, Pierre Gamayel, Maronite Patriarch Antonios Khreish and a number of former Lebanese Presidents. Like current President Suleiman Franjieh, Lebanese Heads of State are traditionally Maronite Christians.
Following his talks at Bkirki, Mr. Khaddam flew by helicopter to Beirut to continue discussions with President Franjieh and Moslem Premier Rashid Karami.
Lebanese Interior Minister Camille Chamoun later arrived at the Patriarchate to continue discussions towards a political solution to the Country’s factional problems.
More than 265 people have died in Beirut and the northern port of Tripoli in the fourth round of factional fighting in Lebanon so far this year.
Following the round of discussions on Tuesday, it was announced in Beirut on Wednesday (24, September) that all armed men should withdraw from the capital and all roadblocks and barricades be taken down by five o’clock that afternoon.
