Word: habib
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...immediate casualty of the Israeli offensive was the fragile attempt to forge a unified government out of Lebanon's bitterly divided religious and political factions. With the help of Philip Habib, President Reagan's special envoy, Lebanese President Elias Sarkis had just succeeded in cobbling together a seven-man National Salvation Committee, representing the main factions of Lebanon's splintered society, to try to negotiate an Israeli withdrawal and set up a coalition government. At week's end, however, the committee was shaken by the resignations of two key members: Prime Minister Chafik Wazzan and Walid...
Until last week's resignations, the U.S. harbored faint hope about the National Salvation Committee's chances for success. Jumblatt had finally been persuaded by Habib to leave his native village in central Lebanon and join the negotiations. Habib provided Jumblatt with a car and a safe-conduct pass for his trip to the presidential palace in Baabda. That kind of skillful arranging was only one of the rare blend of talents that Habib, 62, brought to his latest daunting assignment. Last year it was the blunt-spoken Habib who persuaded Israel and the P.L.O. to accept...
Thanks to Habib's efforts, Jumblatt became a pivotal force in working for a settlement that would avoid a final military confrontation. But the Druze leader objected from the beginning to negotiating under the shadow of Israeli guns. After the committee's first meeting early last week, Jumblatt accused Sarkis and Wazzan of being Israeli "messengers" asking him to deliver the P.L.O. Said Jumblatt: "Why don't we invite Sharon and save time?" As he spoke, dozens of Israeli tanks occupied positions overlooking the presidential palace, where the committee held its meetings...
...middle of the second stormy session of the National Salvation Committee, Habib was summoned to the palace from the nearby residence of U.S. Ambassador Robert Dillon. Strongly urging the Americans to get Israel to cease hostilities, the committee informed Habib that they had agreed to a Palestinian plan for saving West Beirut. The P.L.O. proposals reportedly called for 1) an Israeli pullback to a distance of five kilometers from the capital, 2) the reopening of the Beirut-Damascus highway and 3) the return of the guerrillas to Palestinian refugee camps in and around Beirut, with the Lebanese army assuming...
Before he could do so, however, Israeli radio reported that the P.L.O. plan had been rejected by the Begin government because it did not provide for the disarming of the guerrillas or for their expulsion from Lebanon. Habib returned to the National Salvation Committee on Wednesday with the U.S. plan for a settlement. First, both the P.L.O. and Israel would agree to a ceasefire. Second, the P.L.O. would lay down its arms, and the 25,000-man Lebanese army would enter West Beirut to collect the weapons and take charge of the city. (At week...