Word: habib
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...Israel pounds Beirut, Habib inches toward a possible settlement...
...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...
...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...
...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...
...agreement would be contingent partly on finding somewhere else for the P.L.O. fighters to go later. Habib, at Reagan's orders, took off last week on a swing through Syria, Saudi Arabia and Egypt (he will also visit Israel) to try to persuade those countries to take in some of the guerrillas. Saud and Khaddam made clear in Washington that their countries would agree to house P.L.O. troops only if the U.S. committed itself to speeding up negotiations for Palestinian self-determination. To the Arabs, that means direct U.S. dealings with the P.L.O., in exchange for P.L.O. recognition...