Word: habib
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Once again Israel had unleashed its awesome arsenal in defiance of the close ally that supplied most of its weapons The blow came just when U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib seemed on the verge of salvaging a diplomatic victory for the U.S. by negotiating a peaceful evacuation of the P.L.O. from Lebanon. As Israel's terrible swift sword sliced into West Beirut, in full video view of a war-weary world, the U.S. was reduced to muttering public protests...
Reagan adopted the view that challenging Israel too harshly would sacrifice what remains of America's influence over its prickly ally. "Our relationship is our strongest leverage," says an official. Severing this tenuous bond by cutting off weapons or recalling Habib "would give the Israelis a carte blanche to go into West Beirut," says one of Reagan's senior advisers. It was agreed, however, that the U.S. should vote for a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Israel if the measure could be modified to include references to the need for P.L.O. restraint, and if the mention of sanctions...
From the American perspective, Israel's assault on West Beirut came at a most inopportune moment. Habib appeared to have worked out a complex agreement that would have provided for the evacuation of the P.L.O. from Lebanon. That the Israelis seemed willing to jeopardize the Habib mission indicated to some dispirited American analysts that Jerusalem might actually prefer a bloody showdown to a diplomatic settlement that would preserve and possibly enhance the P.L.O.'s political status. Asked one U.S. official: "How can Begin bear to see [P.L.O. Leader Yasser] Arafat two months from now in Cairo, his apparatus...
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...
...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