International Threat of new war hangs over southern Lebanon

Press, 19 April 1979, Page 8

International Threat of new war hangs over southern Lebanon

IXZPA-Reuter Beirut The threat of a new war hung over Lebanon yesterday as a contingent from the Lebanese Army left Beirut in a bid to re-establish control over the country's south in the face of fierce opposition from Israel and the Israeli-backed Christian militia at present in control there.

The leader of the Christian Militia, Major Saad Haddad, said in Metullah, Israel, yesterday that he would announce the independence of south Lebanon today, and it was reported from Jerusalem that Israel had pledged to keep Lebanese Government forces out of the southern area controlled by the militia.

The Israeli-backed militias under Major Haddad hold a 15km wide enclave along the Israeli border and refuse to bow to the Lebanese Government or the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon. In a move intended to reestablish a Government presence in south Lebanon, about 500 troops will head south from the port of Sidon today to take up positions alongside U.N.1.F.1.L. troops — and within the range of Major Haddad’s Israeli sup- ( plied heavy artillery, close to the Israeli border. The Israeli Defence Minister met Major Haddad yesterday and told him that Israel had agreed that a limited number of Lebanese Government troops should , be stationed south of the Litan i River. Informed military sources said the Israeli Cabinet had apparently bowed to pressure, from the United States and European countries with troops serving the United Nations in Lebanon, to permit the Lebanese forces to take up positions in the south. But Israel will not permit Lebanese Government troops to move farther south into the area controlled by the Christian militia, sources in Jerusalem have said. Israel had promised Major Haddad all necessary aid to prevent such a move, the sources said. The Christian militia forces say that the Lebanese troops are really under Syr-

ian control, have collaborated with Palestinian guerrilla units, and aim to deprive the Christians of their control of the south.

The occupying battalion left Beirut for Sidon in a jubilant mood. The troops made victory signs to onlookers, who cascaded the soldiers with rice and roses and slaughtered a sheep for them. But the joyous mood could soon evaporate if Major Haddad’s gunners and Israeli forces repeat an artillery attack thej’ made around U.N.1.F.1.L. positions in south lebanon. Correspondents who accompanied the Lebanese battalion saw no armaments heavy enough to match the 175 mm guns and super Sherman tanks which the Israelis have supplied to the Rightists in the south. Major Haddad told Agence France-Presse the decision . on independence had been , agreed in principle in Marja- . youn a week ago by representatives of all towns and villages in the Christian enclave. He himself had chosen the

date when they would oppose the “seizure of the enclave by the illegal Government in Beirut,” he said.

“We are prepared to resist alone. We feel abandoned by the whole world but our determination has not slackened. We have struggled for three years and ours is the only free and independent zone in all Lebanon.” He made it clear that he objected to the Lebanese Army anywhere south of the Litani, a point conceded by his Israeli backers. He said that the Israeli decision to accept a partial occupation could only affect him “as friendly advice.” He said he would agree to rejoin the mother country only when the last Syrian and Palestinian had departed from Lebanon. Major Haddad broke with the central Government when civil war erupted in Lebanon two years ago and the Army split into Christian and Muslim factions.

Southern Lebanon was already tense yesterday after the reported shelling of Palestinian positions. Israel denied that it was responsible. The shelling came after six guerrillas were killed attempting to cross from Lebanon to Israel as part of the stepped-up campaign to sabotage the peace treaty with Egypt. Lebanese officials in Sidon, the provincial capital of south Lebanon, said Israeli artillery and rockets opened up ~ and pounded Palestinians along a 48km front, from Tyre on the coast to the foothills of Mount Hermon. An Israeli Army spokesman in Tel Aviv denied that Israel was responsible for the shelling. There were reports that the Christian militias were firing at the Palestinian concentrations.