The first substantive round in the Lebanese unity conference began today with Syria and its anti-Government Lebanese allies asking that the American-sponsored Israeli-Lebanese withdrawal accord be scrapped, conference sources said.
Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam of Syria, nominally an observer at the conference, was said to have taken an active role in the five hours of talks in the Carnival restaurant atop the Intercontinental Hotel.
According to one conferences source, he behaved as if he had Soviet backing to press for the abrogation of the Israeli-Lebanese accord worked out in May.
Mr. Khaddam had a noontime meeting with President Amin Gemayel of Lebanon. In what was described by conference sources as a stiff encounter, the Foreign Minister affirmed Syria’s opposition to the May 17 accord under which Israel committed itself to leave Lebanon if Syrian forces and their Palestinian allies did. Syrian Strategy Is Unclear
It was not clear whether Syria was stating its opening negotiating position at the conference, subject to a compromise, or was voicing its last word.
”The whole conference is riding on this question,” a Moslem delegate said. ”If the Syrians are ready to accept some kind of compromise formula that will allow for revision of the agreement or putting it aside for the time being, then everything becomes possible. If they insist on its abrogation, then the conference is going to be paralyzed by this issue.”
Much of the crucial activity is not occurring in the conference room, but in discussions between the Israeli, Syrian, American and Soviet observers and the various Lebanese participants.
Every Lebanese faction is relying on some outside power for backing and guidance, and it is the relations between the outside powers and their Lebanese proxies that is expected to determine the outcome. Importance of the Outsiders
”All the Lebanese can do here is cosmetics,” said a senior pro-Syrian Christian. ”We have to get the frame set first and that frame can only come through an outside agreement between the Israelis, Syrians, Americans and Soviets. They are the dynamic forces. Without them, this conference will be a mess. It will be nothing more than a masked ball.”
The sources say the Americans have told President Gemayel that, as long as he supports the withdrawal agreement, they will back him to the hilt. No U.S.-Syrian Contact
The Americans have had no contact with Foreign Minister Khaddam of Syria and are understood to be closely watching Syrian behavior at the conference. The Americans are apparently hoping that the Syrians will be intimidated by the example of the Marine invasion of Grenada and the lack of Soviet response into taking a conciliatory line here.
If the Syrians are intimidated, said one conference source, they have not shown it until now.
In the discussion of the withdrawal accord at the morning session, conference sources said, Mr. Khaddam told Mr. Chamoun that any Lebanese who equated the Syrian presence in Lebanon with that of the Israelis should ”look for somewhere else to live.”
At that point, Mr. Chamoun shot back: ”Is Khaddam threatening us?”
Mr. Khaddam responded: ”I am threatening Israel and anyone who collaborates with it.”
Mr. Chamoun then declared: ”If you want to liberate Arab territory, why don’t you liberate the Golan Heights?”
At that point, Mr. Khaddam turned to a Lebanese ally and said, apparently alluding to Mr. Chamoun: ”People can never change their nature. Their nature changes only when they die.” Agree to Follow the Agenda
The afternoon session, according to the conference sources, was also dominated by discussion of the May accord. The delegates eventually agreed to adhere to the agenda drawn up by their deputies in Beirut on Oct. 24.
The agenda items are: a durable and all-embracing national reconciliation; Lebanon’s identity; an end to the Israeli occupation; withdrawal of all non-Lebanese forces with the exception of those whose presence is sought by the Lebanese Government; political, social, economic and administrative reforms; insuring social justice; conditions inside the Lebanese Army, and the spread of Lebanese sovereignty over all of the national territory.
All the conferees agreed on one point after today’s sessions: If nothing else, it was a positive sign that they had got through the day without anyone’s walking out.
”I cannot say there has been any progress or any regress,” said Walid Jumblat, the Druse leader, summing up the day. ”We are all working seriously.”