Negotiations intensified here today as Lebanese and Syrian officials met to try to resolve the conflict between Syrian peacekeeping troops and Lebanese Christian militia areas.
President Elias Sarkis held talks with the Syrian Foreign Minister, Abdel Halim Khaddam, but the Lebanese people reacted with deep skepticism during the second day of an uneasy truce endangered by Syrian siege of a Lebanese Army barracks.
Lebanese recall that it took 59 proclaimed cease‐fires before. the 1975‐76 civil war came, more or less, to a halt.
President Sarkis held a series of meeting’s during the day with Foreign Minister Khaddam. Leaders of Lebanese Christian political parties and Lebanese and Syrian military leaders took part. There was talks of a possible compromise, but no details were available.
Syrian.trategy Has Two Alms
The Syrian strategy then, as now, had two aims: to prevent Israeli intervention in Lebanon, which would drag the Syrians into a conflict they do not want and are not ready for, and to preserve Lebanese unity against Christian moves for partition, which would only provoke greater instability.
This meant, in 1976, strong action by the Syrian Army to weaken the Palestinians sufficiently so that Israel would not consider them a direct threat and feel the need to move into Lebanon.
The Syrian first tried political pressure to persuade the Palestinian and Lebanese leftist leadership to abandon their drive against the Christians, When this was unsuccessful, Syrian troops moved into Lebanon in June 1976, and forced the Palestinians and leftist guerrillas out of their mountain strongholds and squeezed them into the south, away from the Christian areas.
The Syrian policy managed to persuade most of his Arab partners of the need of his strong tactics to restore stability to Lebanon. By November 1976, the Syrian troops had won Arab League approval and were officially installed in Lebanon under the name ‘of the Arab Deterrent Force.
It was the mission of this force, made up of more than 30,000 Syrians and token presence of Saudis, Sudanese and other Arabs, to restore order in the country and to maintain the order until Lebanese security forces were in position to take over.
The Syrians have largely fulfilled their mission, restoring general calm to the country except in the far south, where Israel warned they should not intrude.
