Lebanon Muslims Draft Sweeping Peace Plan

Leaders of Lebanon’s Sunni and Shia Muslim and Druze communities Tuesday issued sweeping proposals to rewrite the constitution and dismantle all militias in Beirut while fierce battles swept through the city of Tripoli.

Lebanese Premier Rashid Karami issued a statement at dawn on a “new national plan” drawn up by 12 Lebanese delegates during an 11-hour meeting in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Monday and Tuesday.

The 12 agreed to “collect all weapons and end all militiamen, to dissolve all militias” and to “rebuild a new army so it will be capable of carrying out its national role against the Israeli army and defend the country.”

In Tripoli, about 40 miles north of Beirut, Muslim fundamentalists engaged in a second day of fighting with pro-Syrian militiamen, bringing the casualty total in the city to 19 people killed and 28 wounded.

Two of the dead and three of the injured were Lebanese army soldiers. Five civilians were among the injured. A number of buildings were destroyed, including an elementary school, and several others were set ablaze.

Jumblatt, Berri Attend

The Damascus meeting was held under the auspices of Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam. Lebanese Muslim and Druze leaders attending included Karami, who is a Sunni; Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt, who is Lebanon’s tourism minister, and Nabih Berri, who is the nation’s justice minister and leader of Amal, the major Shia Muslim militia.

Seeking to give Lebanon’s Muslims and Druze equal power with the traditionally dominant Christians, their plan pledged “to draw up a new constitution that will achieve unity for Lebanon and affirm its identity and national role” and end “sectarian despotism.”

Never before have so many Muslim leaders made such an explicit call for a new constitution, but political commentators said much of the plan outlined by the 12 has been suggested before.

President Amin Gemayel, meanwhile, called a top-level meeting on how to combat U.S. moves to close Beirut International Airport. Lebanon’s official National News Agency said Gemayel will preside at a meeting of airport and security officials to discuss “ways to confront the American measures against Beirut airport.”

Plan for Airport Security

On Monday, a committee of army commanders completed a plan to improve security at the airport.

In Washington, a State Department spokesman said the Reagan Administration is continuing efforts to arrange an international boycott of the Beirut airport and a ban on Lebanese air carriers.

President Reagan, responding to the hijacking of a TWA jetliner by Muslim terrorists who killed one American and held 39 others hostage for 16 days, ordered steps last week to isolate Beirut airport until Lebanon “puts terrorists off limits.”