Syria has softened its stand on the Lebanese-Israeli troop withdrawal accord

publisher: UPI

Publishing date: 1983-08-17

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Syria has softened its stand on the Lebanese-Israeli troop withdrawal accord to allow a point-by-point discussion of the agreement with the Reagan administration, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

In Beirut, Lebanese Prime Minister Chefik Wazzan threatened to resign and refused to conduct government business in a protest over the welcome given by Christian leaders in east Beirut to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens.

The Syrian agreement to discuss the accord was obtained from Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam in a meeting Wednesday in Damascus with U.S. Middle East envoy Richard Fairbanks, said the official, who asked not to be identified.

The official cautioned that the agreement was a small step andnot a sign of a major breakthrough in the Middle East peace process.

Fairbanks later flew to Beirut to confer with President Reagan’s special Middle East envoy, Robert McFarlane, who arrived in the Lebanese capital after talks in Israel.

The detailed review of the Lebanese-Israeli agreement will be conducted over the next several days between Syrian officials and State Department officials, including Davis Robinson, an adviser on international legal matters.

After months of blocking the May 17 accord that calls for an Israeli troop withdrawal and joint Israeli-Lebanese security arrangements, it was the first time Syria agreed to discuss it in detail with the United States.

Syria at one point refused talks with McFarlane’s predecessor, Philip Habib, saying there was nothing new to discuss and that Habib was hostile to Arabs.

Syrian President Hafez Assad has said the accord was imposed on Lebanon by Israel and the United States, and demands an unconditional Israeli withdrawal before he will pull his 40,000 forces out of Lebanon.

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