Word: syrians
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...week. The American President has not heard that kind of talk from many Arab leaders lately. More important, officials hoped that the Gemayel visit to Washington would speed up the search for a solution to the most pressing issue in the Middle East: how to get the Israeli and Syrian armies, as well as the remaining fighters of the Palestine Liberation Organization, out of Lebanon as quickly as possible...
...Amman meeting inevitably raised some fears within the Arab world. The Syrians, hostile to Jordan and fearful of losing their role as a champion of the Palestinians, wasted no time in condemning the talks. The Syrian news agency reported that five of the 15 groups constituting the P.L.O. had blasted the Jordanian federation idea as a product of "American schemes" and "reactionary Arab regimes." Three of those groups disavowed that statement, however, and Arafat's leadership did not appear to be seriously threatened. Arab moderates like Saudi Arabia and Morocco, moreover, were quietly encouraging the Jordanian-Palestinian relationship...
...Lebanon, Shamir insisted that the 5,000 to 6,000 Palestinian guerrillas still in northern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley should leave before any Israeli withdrawal began. But he did not totally reject the idea that the P.L.O. might depart at the same time as a mutual Syrian-Israeli withdrawal. Among the security arrangements Shamir did insist on was establishment of a 40-km security zone north of the Israeli border as a buffer against future P.L.O. incursions...
...Washington, Administration officials were mildly optimistic that an agreement would soon be reached to remove all foreign armies from Lebanon: some 5,000 to 6,000 P.L.O. guerrillas and 30,000 Syrian and 70,000 Israeli troops. Special Envoy Philip Habib and others were working on a detailed plan for phased withdrawals that will be presented to Israeli Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir this week in Washington. But many obstacles must be overcome. Last week Syrian President Hafez Assad informed Habib and his deputy in the Middle East, U.S. Ambassador Morris Draper, that Israeli forces would have to withdraw first...
...attempt to achieve a quick removal of Syrian and Israeli forces from Lebanon has, to Reagan's dismay, sidetracked the Middle East peace plan he announced on Sept. 1. Admits a White House official: "Lebanon is the essential issue to get solved before we can go on with the rest of the peace process." The dilemma, as Lebanese Prime Minister Wazzan noted last week, is that Lebanon will never be truly stable and independent until there is a comprehensive settlement of the key Palestinian problem. And such a settlement, whether proposed by Reagan or anyone else, remains...