Bush Urges Warring Factions in Lebanon to Protect Airport

Vice President George Bush urged warring Lebanese factions Thursday to jointly protect the Beirut airport from terrorists, saying that the move could ease U.S. pressure for a complete shutdown of the hijack-plagued facility.

In remarks to the National Press Club, Bush said that such a move is vital to continued operation of the airport as long as Lebanese President Amin Gemayel’s government remains unable to carry out international accords guaranteeing travelers safe passage through foreign air terminals.

“I would like to see the various factions in Lebanon join together to safeguard that airport,” thus negating the United States’ need to take action, Bush said.

“We would like to be able to tell American travelers: ‘You can go there at minimal risk.’ And we can’t do that now. . . . We’ve got to see this situation corrected, and let’s hope it will be, because we simply cannot put our people at risk.”

Bush also said that he has named retired Adm. James L. Holloway, a veteran of three wars and a former chief of naval operations, to head a newly formed White House task force on counterterrorism policy. Holloway previously led a probe into the abortive 1980 effort to rescue Americans held hostage by Iran. That investigation concluded that the rescue mission failed because of poor coordination among the military participants.

White House Denial

Bush made his remarks as White House spokesman Larry Speakes denied that the Reagan Administration is easing off its call for an international boycott of the Beirut airport until it has been made safe from terrorists.

President Reagan urged a ban on Beirut airport flights shortly after Lebanese terrorists released 39 Americans taken from a TWA jetliner hijacked to Beirut last month.

The call has drawn only a lukewarm response from America’s European allies, however.