Envoy Habib Resigns; No Reason Given

Veteran diplomat Philip C. Habib announced his resignation as President Reagan’s special envoy to Central America on Friday, a week after the region’s five governments agreed to start the sort of peace talks that he had long advocated.

Habib, who began his diplomatic career in 1949 and had represented the U.S. government at peace talks concerning Vietnam, the Middle East and Central America, left his office without explanation shortly after State Department spokesman Charles Redman announced the resignation.

Redman said Habib, 67, believed that his task was completed following the agreement signed last week in Guatamala by the presidents of Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Honduras and Guatamala calling for peace and democracy throughout the region.

‘Appropriate Moment’

“With the signing of the Guatamalan agreement and the adoption of the bipartisan Reagan-Wright plan (the U.S. peace proposal sponsored by Reagan and House Speaker Jim Wright (D-Tex.)), Ambassador Habib has decided that this is an appropriate moment for him to return to private life,” Redman said.

It seems certain that there is more to it than that. In the Central America post since March, 1986, Habib quarreled frequently with conservatives both in and out of the Administration who objected to his emphasis on trying to bring democracy to Nicaragua through negotiations rather than through military pressure by the U.S.-backed contras.

His frustration apparently grew in recent days, some officials said, when the Administration declined to actively participate in the Central American presidents’ continuing talks toward a cease-fire, opting instead to keep its own peace plan alive while waiting to see what becomes of the the regional peace efforts.

Cards Hidden

Habib, an avid poker player who is careful to keep his cards well hidden, refused Friday to clarify the situation. He told a United Press International reporter, “You know me. I never discuss those things.”

Later, he could not be reached for comment but his secretary said, “He’s not speaking to the press, quite frankly.”

Both Redman and White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater were lavish in their praise of Habib, the son of a Lebanese immigrant grocer who held the State Department’s top job for a career diplomat more than 10 years ago and was called back for sensitive missions three times after his retirement in 1978.

Fitzwater, in Santa Barbara where Reagan is vacationing, said Habib “has had a major influence on the peace process. He has worked tirelessly to promote a regional peace initiative and he has performed with great skill and dedication.”

Tenacious Negotiator

Before taking the Central America job, Habib served as a special presidential envoy to the Philippines at the time of the “people power” revolution that brought President Corazon Aquino to office and to the Middle East from May, 1981, until July, 1983.

He is known as a tenacious negotiator who endured years of inconclusive peace talks with the Vietnamese in Paris from 1968 to 1971 and represented Reagan in sensitive Middle East talks more than a decade later.

Although he is often garrulous in conversations with friends, Habib made a trademark of his refusal to discuss his diplomatic initiatives in public. As he shuttled from Beirut to Jerusalem, Habib would wave at television cameramen and say, “More silent movies.”