Talking Under the Gun

By Marguerite Johnson

As Israel pounds Beirut, Habib inches toward a possible settlement

The optimism was guarded, the outcome far from certain. After one of the bloodiest weeks since the Israeli siege of Beirut began nearly two months ago, there were hopeful signs late last week that a diplomatic solution to the Lebanese crisis might yet be found. The quest for peace was being led by U.S. Special Middle East Envoy Philip Habib, who shuttled to Jerusalem and Beirut after a tour of Arab capitals and talks with Jordan's King Hussein in London. Said a top U.S. official: "His trip moved us ahead. We got some specific commitments, enough to make things credible for the P.L.O." And at his press conference last week, President Reagan declared: "I still remain optimistic that a solution is going to be found."

But Habib had yet to wrap up the how and the when, and negotiations were going on under the gun, literally. Prime Minister Menachem Begin repeated his government's threats that Israel would mount an all-out assault on the Lebanese capital to destroy Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization if a way could not be found for the P.L.O. to leave peacefully. At the same time, in an obvious attempt to increase the pressure on the P.L.O., Israeli forces bombarded the beleaguered city and its southern suburbs for seven straight days before Habib managed to arrange still another short-lived ceasefire, the seventh since the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in early June. During some of the heaviest attacks on the city yet, thunderous explosions ripped through residential neighborhoods and plumes of black smoke rose from devastated high-rises.

In the tortuous negotiations, at least one of Begin's demands may have been satisfied, or so Washington hoped. That was the Israeli Prime Minister's insistence on an "unequivocal commitment" from the P.L.O. to evacuate its 6,000 guerrillas, who are sealed off in West Beirut along with 500,000 residents of the city. Indeed, negotiations were already un der way between Habib, the Lebanese government and the P.L.O. to devise a formula for relocating the guerrillas and their families to Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Jordan.

The announcement by the Arab League of a six-point proposal for a settlement gave new impetus to a P.L.O. departure. For the first time, the Arab world acknowledged its "collective responsibility," as one U.S. diplomat in Washington put it, to ensure the evacuation of the Palestinians from Beirut. The key passage in the document, which was signed by Farouk Kaddoumi, head of the P.L.O.'s political department, stated: "The Palestine Liberation Organization declares its decision to transfer its armed forces from Beirut and define guarantees for this move, along with guarantees to be worked out between the P.L.O. and the Lebanese government for the security of the Palestinian refugees." The Arab League statement, a P.L.O. spokesman said, represented "the P.L.O.'s reaffirmation that it is ready to leave Lebanon."

Israeli officials were guarded in their response, and Foreign Minister Yitzhak

Shamir insisted that a reply to Israel's demand that the P.L.O. leave Lebanon must come directly from Habib rather than in a statement by the Arab League. But Begin later told the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee of the Israeli Knesset that the P.L.O. was apparently agreeing to evacuate the city. Despite earlier P.L.O. assurances to Habib to that effect, the Israelis had feared that the P.L.O. was stalling for time to build up its own defenses. But Begin also told the committee that, while he favored a negotiated settlement, many loopholes in an agreement would have to be closed in order to ensure that the P.L.O. would leave. And even if a final agreement could be worked out, Lebanese officials stressed, it would be "several weeks" before an evacuation could be completed.

Although Jerusalem denied the report, diplomatic sources in Lebanon said that Habib had in fact already won Israeli acceptance of a tentative plan for the P.L.O. to be evacuated directly to Syria, then dispersed to Egypt, Jordan and Iraq.

Habib presented the outline of the proposal to Lebanon's President Elias Sarkis and Prime Minister Chafik Wazzan after the U.S. envoy had returned from his swing through the Middle East. A P.L.O. evacuation plan had been drawn up early last week by Colonel Johnny Abdo, head of Lebanese army intelligence, and Hani al Hassan, Arafat's political adviser. The P.L.O. was pleased with the Habib proposals, even though the Palestinians had to forgo the staged withdrawal they preferred by way of the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon and thence to Syria.

Broadly sketched, the other points that Habib was discussing in his intensive sessions with the various B parties in Beirut included the deployment of the Lebanese army and a multinational force before the P.L.O. forces leave Beirut. As the P.L.O. left, Israeli forces would make a token withdrawal. Israeli officials last week said they were opposed to both conditions. The departure of some 5,000 P.L.O. fighters in and around Tripoli in northern Lebanon and the 15,000 to 20,000 commandos in the northern Bekaa Valley was to be worked out in subsequent agreements.

The P.L.O. has also made what it stressed was a request, not a demand, that some 1,000 of its 6,000 guerrillas in West Beirut be permitted to move to Tripoli rather than go to Syria. The reason: alS though most of the guerrillas in Beirut came from countries to which they may be repatriated, about 1,000 were born in Lebanon or have no proper papers and thus know no other home. Arafat would like a temporary haven for these forces in Lebanon until a permanent one can be found. The P.L.O. also wants guarantees for the safety of Palestinian refugees who would remain in Lebanon.

The urgency of finding a speedy solution was driven home to Beirut's strife-weary residents once again last week when Israeli warplanes, gunships and artillery pounded the city day after day in a savage unleashing of military might. By midweek the bombings and shellings had taken a heavy civilian casualty toll: at least 247 people reported killed, many when Israeli bombs exploded in densely populated residential areas, and an estimated 400 others injured. The Israelis also cut off electrical power, fuel and water to the besieged sector. After the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution demanding restoration of the facilities, some water was turned on late last week.

Initially, the Israeli attacks concentrated on Beirut's southern suburbs near the Palestinian refugee camps of Burj al Barajneh, Sabra and Shatila, the international airport and Arab University. But Tuesday, in two 30-min. air raids, Israeli planes suddenly swooped in and dropped 500-lb. bombs on luxury apartment buildings in the Lebanese residential district of Raouche in the heart of Beirut. One apartment building that housed many staffers from the American University Hospital took a direct hit; the top six floors were blown away. A few minutes later, another bomb fell on a building only a few hundred yards from the campus of the American University in Beirut. Lebanese police said that 120 people were killed in the bombings that day, virtually all of them civilians.

The Palestinians and their left-wing Lebanese allies countered with the heaviest artillery shelling of the war, firing salvo after salvo of Soviet-made missiles and rockets into Christian-controlled East Beirut and as far north as the port of the Christian town of Junieh, ten miles away. The response from Washington to the new fighting was swift and unusually stern. "It is the source of the greatest possible regret that many innocent people have been killed and wounded as a result of the breakdown of the cease-fire in Beirut," read a State Department statement. "The bloodshed must stop."

No such regrets were expressed by the Israeli government. When U.S.

Senator Paul Tsongas met with Begin and urged him not to order an assault against Beirut, the Prime Minister icily responded, "We will do what we have to do. West Beirut is not a city. It is a military target surrounded by civilians." That same day Begin talked with Colonel Eli Geva, 31, an Israeli armored-brigade commander who asked to be relieved of his command because he could not in good conscience lead an assault on Beirut. When Begin asked him why, Geva explained that when he looked at Beirut through his binoculars, he saw children playing. Asked Begin: "Did you receive an order to kill children?" Replied Geva: "No." Responded the Prime Minister: "Then what are you complaining about?" Geva was later discharged from the army.

Still, President Reagan avoided any direct criticism of Israel at his press conference. Deploring "the bloodshed and the shelling," he said that the responsibility for the fighting and the collapse of several previous truces was "two-way." Reagan denied that any deadlines had been set for finding a solution to the crisis. He said that if the P.L.O. recognized Israel's right to exist and agreed to abide by two key U.N. resolutions, "then I would feel that the United States could enter into discussions with the P.L.O. I'm not speaking for Israel. That's up to them."

Yet any immediate American interest in forging U.S. relations with the P.L.O. appears to have receded within the Administration. Explained one Washington official: "The issue was blocking any movement in Habib's talks, and scaring the Israelis to death. So the Administration deliberately decided to slow things down." But the U.S. was still under heavy pressure from Arab states, particularly Egypt, to begin a dialogue with the P.L.O. and forthrightly support a policy of self-determination for the Palestinians. On a visit to Washington late last week, Egyptian Foreign Minister Kamal Hassan Ali explained that Egypt was willing to take in several thousand P.L.O. commandos and offer a P.L.O. government-in-exile a home in Cairo. Such a step would go far toward restoring the leadership role Egypt had in the Arab world before it signed a separate peace treaty with Israel.

The Egyptians argue that no country can accept the P.L.O. without some guarantee that a more comprehensive solution to the Palestinian problem is in the works. Explained an adviser to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo: "The Palestinians are a source of serious trouble. Why should we solve Israel's problems at our own expense?" Moreover, the Egyptians point out that it is in America's interest to seize the opportunity for leadership in the region and regain U.S. influence with the hard-line states of Syria and Iraq, thus undercutting Soviet influence in the area. Said a Cairo official: "The U.S. is being given a new opportunity on a silver platter. The whole area is looking to Washington as the key to the solution."

Egypt and France meanwhile co-sponsored a draft resolution in the U.N. Security Council last week that reaffirmed the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination and called for the P.L.O. to be "associated" with negotiations. Officials in both countries expressed hope that the U.S. would not veto the resolution, as it had a similar draft early in July.

The immediate problem, however, was Beirut. Despite the optimism in Lebanon that a settlement would be reached, there remained some nettlesome problems that U.S. officials felt had to be solved to prevent Israel from launching an invasion of the P.L.O. stronghold. All parties, for example, have agreed in principle to installing a multinational force in Lebanon. The P.L.O. and the Lebanese Muslims want it to protect not only the departing guerrillas but also the Palestinians who stay behind. The U.S. and Israel want it only to supervise the P.L.O. retreat. The makeup of the force is also an issue. The P.L.O. would like a U.N. force, the Lebanese and the U.S. an international peace-keeping unit, and Israel would prefer an all-American contingent.

Another sticking point is the P.L.O. desire for the Israelis to match its withdrawal with a pullback of their own, at least as far as Damur, twelve miles south of Beirut. U.S. experts say flatly that the P.L.O. is "dreaming" on that point. Said one State Department official: "It would be hard as hell to get Israel to move back that far because they don't trust the P.L.O. to go." The P.L.O. still wants to leave behind in Lebanon a political and military symbol of its former power. Israel is adamantly opposed to that. Moreover, the proposals being considered last week apply only to P.L.O. forces in Beirut. They do not cover P.L.O., Syrian or Israeli forces elsewhere in Lebanon, a source of great concern to the Lebanese government.

Habib's diligent campaign to resolve such fundamental problems may take him on the road again this week. But just how elusive the cause of peace remained was sadly illustrated at week's end. Even as talks went on to get the P.L.O. out of Beirut, Israeli planes and artillery went into action, and once again the clouds of destruction rose over the beleaguered capital. --By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by Johanna McGeary/Washington and William Stewart/Beirut

With reporting by Johanna McGeary, William Stewart

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