Syrians Win and Palestinians Lose

After 18 months of bloody civil war, at least 37,000 deaths and more than 50 failed cease-fire agreements, last week there were some fresh signs of hope for eventual peace in Lebanon. In Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, six Arab leaders who are most deeply concerned with the war met at the invitation--or command, considering the weight of his oil subsidies to other Arab nations--of the Saudis' King Khalid. At the end of the two-day summit, the six--Khalid, Sheik Sabah as Salim as-Sabah of Kuwait, the Presidents of Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, and Palestinian Leader Yasser Arafat--had hammered out an agreement that will strengthen Syria's hand as a peacemaker in Lebanon and drastically reduce the fighting power of the hapless Palestinians. Leaders on both sides in the Lebanon fighting hailed the deal as a promising start. "It's the best that could be had under the circumstances," said Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami. As the truce hour approached one morning last week and the first guns went silent, a rainbow broke out in the sky over Beirut. At week's end, the truce was holding with only small and scattered violations.

The first problem faced by the Riyadh summit was not the civil war but the running feud between Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Syria's President Hafez Assad. Their squabbling had seriously hurt chances for peace in Lebanon, since the Egyptians have posed as protectors of the Palestinians while Syrian forces have ended up fighting them. At the urging of other Arab leaders, Assad agreed to stop the flow of "negative propaganda" about Egypt from Damascus, which for months has criticized Sadat for signing Sinai accords with Israel. Sadat agreed to recognize Damascus' right to a kind of neighborly hegemony in Lebanon. There is a force of at least 21,000 Syrian troops in Lebanon; aided by Maronite Christians, in recent weeks they have conquered village after village held by the Palestinians. Sadat and Assad also agreed to resume diplomatic relations, which were suspended in the heat of their feud.

Assad emerged from Riyadh last week with Arab support for his efforts to enforce a peace in Lebanon. The Riyadh agreement called for an Arab peace-keeping force of 30,000 men to police Lebanon. The force is technically to be under the supervision of new Lebanese President Elias Sarkis. At the moment, the only Arab peace-keeping force is a motley army of 2,300 Sudanese, Saudis and Libyans; most of the troops needed to bring the force up to strength will almost certainly come from Syria. The Arab leaders at Riyadh also insisted on enforcing the so-called Cairo agreement of 1969, which limits Palestinian movement within Lebanon. This means that some top Palestinian units--such as the Egypt-based Ain Jaloud Brigade and the Yarmouk Brigade, which entered the war from Syria--will be forced to leave the country.

Bitter Defeat. The agreement was not only a victory for Assad but a bitter defeat for Arafat, whose fighting units are now all but immobilized. Nonetheless, the Syrian President and the P.L.O. leader have already moved to patch up relations. TIME Correspondent Wilton Wynn learned in Damascus that the two men met in the Syrian capital last week and agreed that hard-line "rejectionist" elements in the Palestinian movement --notably George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine --must be eliminated to ensure peace.

The Palestinians also suffered losses on the battlefield as well as on the diplomatic front. In southern Lebanon shortly before the latest ceasefire, Christian forces attacked Moslem towns in the border area long known as "Fatahland." Israel, which has already given small arms (TIME, Aug. 2) and even tanks--38 U.S.-built Shermans and 33 captured Soviet T-54s--to the Christians, moved several steps further last week. Israeli helicopters flew ammunition to Christians attacking the town of Marjayoun and ferried out casualties to Israeli hospitals. Israeli paratroops took up crossroads positions around Marjayoun--in sight of Israel--to block off Moslem reinforcements. Israeli artillery along the border, meanwhile, provided fire support for the Christian attackers.

TIME has also learned that the Israelis have provided the Christian Lebanese with a small navy, whose mission is to intercept ships heading for the remaining Moslem-held port of Sidon. The fleet consists of five gunboats of the Israeli navy Dabur class and three of the smaller Yatush class. According to one Israeli who helped train 100 Lebanese sailors to man them, the boats represent "the first 'Christian' navy in the Mediterranean since the Crusades."

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