WAR IN LEBANON SPREADS AS SYRIA SEEKS A SOLUTION

publisher: The New York Times

Publishing date: 1976-01-22

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President Franjieh, a Christian, met with the Syrian mediation team headed by Syria’s Foreign Minister, Abdel Halim Khaddam: the Syrian Army’s Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Hikmat Chehabi, and Air Vice Marshal Naji Jamil.

The Syrian then adjourned for talks with prominent Lebanese Moslem leaders, including Rashid Karami, who announced his resignation as Prime Minister on Sunday but has yet to submit a letter of resignation making it formal.

The Syrian Foreign Minister. who also holds the title of Deputy Prime Minister, said that he carried a message from President Hafez al‐Assad to President Franjieh and that he had come “with the hope that this time there will be a final settlement to the Lebanese crisis.”

Syria, which supplies most of the weapons of the Palestinans and their Lebanese allies, has been seeking a formula that would be acceptable to both Christians and Moslems in Lebanon’s civil warfare, which has taken thousands of lives since it erupted last April.

A fundamental issue is a realignment of Lebanon’s political structure, which gives the Lebanese Christian minority a dominant role in the Government, Parliament and armed forces.

The Syrians have pressed for equal distribution of seats in the unicameral Parliament, where Christians now have a 6‐to‐5 majority. Mr. Franjieh was reported to have countered with the suggestion that the parliamentary system he; changed to add a senate in which the Christians would preserve their majority, allowing equality of the communities in the lower house.

Egypt Reports an Accord

CAIRO, Jan. 21—The Middle East News Agency said tonight that the opposing factions in Lebanon had accepted a Syrian peace proposal that included sweeping changes in the Lebanese system of givernment.

The official Egyptian agency reported that the agreement stipulated that the Palestine Liberation Organization would have to accept secret provisions to deprive Palestinian refugee camps in Christian; areas of the country of their weapons.

The agency said the Syrian plan provided for Christians and Moslems to have equal representation in Parliament and for abolition of religious quotas in appointments of all but the highest government officials.

The Syrian plan also calls for the Prime Minister to be elected by Parliament instead of being named by the President, the agency added.

The Syrian proposal has been accepted, the agency said, by President Franjieh, a Christian, and by Kamal Jumblat, a Druse, who is the single most powerful figure in the alliance of Moslem and leftist Christian parties.

The agency said the signing of the agreement by President Franjieh and others, including acting Prime Minister Rashid Kararni, could be expected tomorrow.

 

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