Israel, Lebanon to Resume Pullout Talks

Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami said Saturday that Lebanese and Israeli negotiators this week will resume their suspended talks on what he called “the program and timetable for an Israeli withdrawal” from southern Lebanon.

Karami announced the new session, scheduled for Tuesday, after he and Lebanese President Amin Gemayel met with U.N. Undersecretary General Brian Urquhart in Beirut. Urquhart has shuttled among Israel, Syria and Lebanon in the past week to try to get the U.N.-sponsored negotiations resumed.

The talks, which began Nov. 8 in the Lebanese border town of Naqoura, are aimed at establishing orderly security measures for the southern Lebanon region, which the occupying Israelis plan to abandon. Israel invaded Lebanon in June, 1982, in a drive to smash the Palestine Liberation Organization.

The talks were suspended Jan. 7 by the Israelis when the Lebanese side failed to come up with a satisfactory response to Israel’s proposals for redeploying U.N. troops based in southern Lebanon after the Israeli withdrawal.

Urquhart, questioned Saturday by reporters, refused to describe the substance of his discussions with Lebanese, Israeli and Syrian officials, saying only that they included “very helpful elements.” Syria is the dominant foreign power in Lebanon.

Since the last round of talks, the Israeli Cabinet has formally adopted a plan for the staged withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon. When the Cabinet made its decision, Prime Minister Shimon Peres expressed Israel’s willingness to return to the Naqoura sessions, but he held out little hope for their success “unless there will be a change in the Lebanese position.”

Peres explained that by carrying out its withdrawal in stages, Israel hopes to keep alive the chances of a firm agreement with Lebanon on new security arrangements.

In his remarks Saturday, Karami made no reference to the dispute that stalled the Naquora talks, but he indicated that Israel has at least partially met a Lebanese demand for a withdrawal timetable.

Israel said that the first part of its three-stage withdrawal will be carried out within five weeks.

“We know that the date for the first stage has been set,” Karami said. “As for the other two stages, the second one could be in April.

“For the third stage,” he added, “there is no specific time yet, but we hope that all these dates will be fixed in the official talks in Naqoura.”

There was no indication from the Israelis that a firm timetable has been fixed beyond the first stage, in which they will redeploy their forces from the area around the southern Lebanese port of Sidon to the Nabatiyeh area and along the Litani River, about 15 miles south of their present positions.