Lebanon Parliament Scraps ’69 Pact With Palestine Guerrillas

Lebanon’s Parliament today scrapped the controversial 1969 Cairo Agreement which gave Palestinian guerrillas freedom of action in refugee camps and parts of south Lebanon.

“The agreement signed on Nov. 3, 1969, between army Cmdr. Emile Boustany and the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, known as the Cairo Agreement, is considered null and void,” a parliamentary law said.

The decision came less than a month after the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian parliament-in-exile, reiterated at its Algiers meeting that the agreement was still valid.

It also coincided with a resurgence of Palestinian guerrilla activity in south Lebanon, where hundreds of PLO fighters have returned since Israel’s 1982 invasion.

A parliamentary source said the abrogation of the Cairo Agreement can be reversed only if President Amin Gemayel, a right-wing Maronite Christian, asks Parliament to vote a second time.

The agreement has always been controversial, and right-wing Christian leaders have consistently called for its abrogation.

The agreement’s text was never officially published, but was leaked to Beirut’s independent An Nahar newspaper.

The 1969 accord allowed the PLO to set up military bases in south Lebanon to launch attacks on Israel. It also permitted the PLO to keep heavy weapons at more than a dozen refugee camps across Lebanon for self-defense against Israel.