The Reagan Administration stressed today that the diplomatic efforts to achieve a cease-fire in Lebanon are “continuing very actively.” U.S. special envoy Robert McFarlane was in Damascus today where he reportedly met with the Syrian Foreign Minister, Abdel Halim Khaddam, and with Walid Jumblatt, leader of the Lebanese Druze who are fighting the Lebanese army from the Shouf mountains.
The Administration is pressing the diplomatic effort not only because it wants Congress to adopt the compromise agreement allowing the U.S. marines to stay an additional 18 months in Lebanon, but because, as President Reagan made clear yesterday, the Administration believes that if the effort in Lebanon fails, it will take down with it any remaining hope for the Reagan Middle East peace initiative.
Answering questions from regional editors and broadcasters at the White House yesterday, Reagan said if the cease-fire effort fails, “the peace plan for the whole Middle East that we had proposed and offered our help in bringing about, based on Camp David and the UN resolutions … I think also goes.”
