Iran Aide Shifts Stand on Syrian Role in Beirut

Shells crashed near the Syrian-held airport highway Thursday as rival Shia Muslim militias battled with artillery and machine guns for a 14th day despite efforts by Syria and Iran to end the fighting.

Iran’s chief mediator, acting Foreign Minister Ali Mohammed Besharati, toned down his earlier public opposition to Syrian military intervention to try to snuff out the fighting for control of the city’s southern slums.

Besharati told reporters after meeting with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Hussein Husseini on Thursday evening that “if the entry of the Syrian forces to the suburbs guarantees security, we will not object.”

On Wednesday, Besharati said that Iran opposed any Syrian deployment because there was some opposition in the 16-square-mile slums to such a move. More than 80% of the estimated 250,000 residents have fled the fighting.

There was no explanation for Besharati’s change of position.

The thud of shell explosions reverberated across Beirut. The Iranian-backed Hezbollah (Party of God) militia and the pro-Syrian Amal militia, who have been battling since May 6, accused each other of starting the fighting. Shelling broke out at mid-afternoon and raged into the night Thursday.

Police reported earlier that one man was killed and 10 people were wounded in machine-gun clashes between the rival militias. Authorities said they had no new reports of casualties in the nighttime fighting.

The Syrian command said no Syrian troops or positions along the 5-mile highway that abuts the shantytowns in South Beirut were hit in the shelling.

Thursday’s casualties brought the overall toll to 244 dead and 772 injured since fighting flared in the slums, where Hezbollah-affiliated groups are believed to hold most of the 18 foreign hostages, including 9 Americans, in Lebanon.

Syria, the main power broker in Lebanon, is Iran’s principal Arab ally. But the government of President Hafez Assad is alarmed by Tehran’s efforts through Hezbollah to dominate Lebanon’s 1.2 million Shias, the country’s largest single Muslim sect.

In Jerusalem, Vernon A. Walters, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said he will return to Syria today on a mission to try to secure the release of the nine American hostages.

He declined to go into details of his Damascus journey.

Walters said his return to the region was prompted by concern for the safety of the hostages as the fighting between Amal and Hezbollah escalated.

He also apparently is seeking Israel’s assurances that it will not conduct raids into Lebanon against Hezbollah and thereby endanger the hostages. Israel has blamed Hezbollah for helping Palestinian guerrillas attack northern Israeli settlements.