Lebanon Militias Discuss Peace Amid New Clashes
Top Christian and Muslim militia officials met in Syria on Saturday to finish drafting a peace treaty that would end Lebanon’s 10-year-old civil war, while sectarian fighting continued on several Beirut fronts, killing at least two people.
The two were killed and 10 others were injured during five hours of sporadic tank, artillery and mortar exchanges across Beirut’s dividing Green Line and in the mountains east of the capital, police reported.
The Central News Agency said Christian officials accused the radical Shia Muslim Hezbollah, or Party of God, of shelling Christian sectors, seeking to provoke clashes and sabotage the peace efforts. It opposes the peace talks because of the Christians’ former links with Israel.
The battles broke out as senior representatives of the three main Christian and Muslim militias met in Damascus for five hours in the fifth round of negotiations to end the war.
They met at the office of Abdul Halim Khaddam, Syria’s vice president who masterminded the peace accord that was hammered out in several weeks of closed-door negotiations in Damascus.
None of the Lebanese militia officials would comment when the talks adjourned. But sources close to the negotiations said they expect a draft treaty to be drawn up during the weekend that will call for an equal share of power between Christians and Muslims.
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