Secretary of State George Shultz arrived in Damascus today only hours after Syria warned it would not pull its forces from Lebanon unless Israeli troops withdraw unconditionally.
‘We have much to talk about,’ Shultz told Syrian Foreign Minister Abdul Halim Khaddam on his arrival from Beirut and a brief meeting with Lebanon’s President Amin Gemayel.
Shultz was scheduled to hold talks Wednesday with President Hafez Assad, who flatly rejected an Israeli-Lebanese troop withdrawal agreement and has vowed not to remove Syria’s 40,000 troops from Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley.
During the secretary’s five-hour stay in Beirut, Lebanon also threatened to scrap its accord with Israel if the Jewish state proceeds with plans for a partial troop pullback, instead of a complete withdrawal.
The agreement, signed May 17, provided for the withdrawal of Israeli troops in return for economic and political concessions by Lebanon. But it has never taken effect because of Israeli insistence that Syrian troops withdraw first.
‘We had an intensive review of the situation,’ Shultz said at the presidential palace before flying by helicopter to his airplane waiting beside the U.S. Marine base at Beirut airport.
Lebanese Foreign Minister Elie Salem said Shultz assured President Amin Gemayel that the U.S. commitment to the restoration of Lebanese sovereignty had not wavered.
Shultz earlier told reporters he believed Syria’s President Hafez Assad wants constructive talks with the United States on the presence of its 40,000 troops in Lebanon.
‘But I don’t have a basket of things to offer or anything of that kind,’ Shultz told reporters aboard a flight earlier today to Beirut from Jiddah, Saudi Arabia.
‘Breaking a deadlock is a big phrase,’ Shultz said. ‘I do not use words as breakthrough or anything like that at all.’
Assad vetoed the Israeli-Lebanese troop withdrawal agreement because it allows a residual Israeli military presence in southern Lebanon and he refused to withdraw his forces from the strategic Bekaa Valley.
The Israelis have countered by considering a partial pullback of its 30,000 troops to southern Lebanon, a move opposed by the United States because it could lead to a partition of the war-torn nation by Israel and Syria.
A senior Lebanese official warned Lebanon might scrap its accord with Israel if the Jewish state goes ahead with a partial pullback.
‘Lebanon would not feel obligated to go ahead with its part of the agreement,’ said the senior official at the presidential palace in suburban Baabda where Shultz met President Amin Gemayel.
The official said Lebanon would only accept a partial withdrawal if it were part of a definite timetable for a complete Israeli pullout.
