Word: habib
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...their visit to Washington, Saud and Khaddam endorsed a new plan for getting the P.L.O. out of Beirut: the guerrillas would first withdraw to other parts of Lebanon. At week's end Philip Habib, the U.S. special envoy in the Middle East, was reportedly hammering out a detailed version: the P.L.O. would go to Tripoli in northern Lebanon, while the Israelis would withdraw to Damur, twelve miles south of Beirut. This would be the first stage in a phased withdrawal of all P.L.O., Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon...
...Organization Leader Yasser Arafat had no intention of leaving Beirut and that he was deliberately dragging his feet in order to avoid a direct Israeli attack on his stronghold. In East Beirut, the director-general of Israel's Foreign Ministry, David Kimche, bluntly warned U.S. Special Envoy Philip Habib that a final assault on the Palestinian positions could become inevitable, if the deadlock persists. Said Kimche: 'Time is running out. They better take us seriously...
Reagan also sent a message to Syria's President Hafez Assad, urging him to reconsider his refusal to accept the Palestinians. But Assad flatly turned Reagan down, stressing that Habib's prime mission should be not the evacuation of P.L.O. guerrillas but the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. In any event, the Syrians insisted, the P.L.O. leadership had made no formal request for sanctuary in Syria. Nonetheless, Arafat admitted in Beirut that a proposal for Syria to take in Palestinian fighters was "under discussion" and that he was interested in such a move because "my main headquarters...
Despite those risks, Begin's sentiments turned more bellicose late in the week. "He wanted to give Habib as much time as he could," said a Begin aide. "But he's absolutely determined that the result of this operation, having cost so much blood, must be the evacuation of the P.L.O. from Beirut." During a military ceremony on Thursday, Sharon, too, adopted a more militant posture. Said he: "We have not returned the sword to the sheath and will not do so until the last of the terrorists has left Beirut...
...send any forces into the Middle East. White House Spokesman Larry Speakes said that Reagan had received the Soviet leader's letter in California and was working on a reply. But officials added that the Kremlin's discomfort would not affect U.S. plans if Habib's diplomatic efforts proved successful...