Syria and Hezbollah Agree to Halt Fighting in Beirut

The Syrian government has reached agreement with an Iranian-backed militia group in Lebanon to end the recurrent fighting in Beirut’s southern suburbs and impose a Syrian security plan in the beleaguered area, a high-ranking Damascus official announced Thursday.

The announcement significantly buoyed hopes for the freedom of the 18 foreign hostages, including nine Americans, who are believed to be held by Muslim fundamentalists in the slums south of Beirut.

The Syrian official, who asked that he not be further identified, told reporters that the agreement was reached between Syrian President Hafez Assad and leaders of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God, in an unprecedented meeting Wednesday in the northern Syrian port of Latakia.

He declined to disclose the details of the accord but said it provided for a halt to all fighting in the southern suburbs Thursday and implementation of the security arrangements today.

Hours after the truce announcement, gunmen ambushed a car carrying Syria’s top four generals in Lebanon, according to wire service reports. Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan’s bulletproof Mercedes-Benz was hit by dozens of bullets, the reports said, but the four officers escaped injury.

In addition to Kenaan, Syria’s military intelligence chief in Lebanon, the others were Maj. Gen. Sayed Bairakdar, commander of Syrian forces in Lebanon, and Brig. Gens. Zuheir Musattati, a deputy to Bairakdar, and Ali Hammoud, intelligence chief for the Beirut area.

The officers were returning from a meeting with Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, spiritual leader of Hezbollah, when their car was ambushed in the southern slums.

These suburbs encompass 14 square miles that have been the scene of fierce fighting for the last two weeks between Hezbollah fundamentalists and the more moderate militia group called Amal. Both groups are made up of Shia Muslims. The Amal has been supported by Syria.

The Syrian official said the agreement had been approved by all parties in Lebanon. When asked about Iran’s consent, he said, “It is very well known that Hezbollah’s support comes from Iran.”

Although no details have been made public officially, the security agreement reportedly calls for the deployment of a joint security force to supervise the truce, possibly a mixture of Syrian troops and Lebanese policemen.

It has not been made clear how many troops will be involved, whether they will set up checkpoints and have mobile patrols and whether the combatants are to be disarmed--all important questions.

The entrance of even a limited number of Syrian troops into Beirut’s suburbs will bring a measure of order after years of anarchy, much like the situation that prevailed in West Beirut until the Syrians moved in there last year.

In the opinion of diplomatic analysts, the Syrian deployment will make it almost impossible for Hezbollah or other extremists to continue to hold foreign hostages in the congested area, or to move them about without being detected. Many analysts think it unlikely that Assad would meet with Hezbollah representatives without agreement first on the release of the hostages.

The Syrian official said that implementation of the security plan was a first step toward the release of the hostages, but he added that this could be achieved only by means of political dialogue.

‘New Hope’ for Hostages

“I’m sure the end of the fighting in itself will create a new hope for the release of the hostages,” he said. “Syria is exerting all efforts to secure the release of the hostages, regardless of their nationality.”

Despite the optimism, there has been speculation that the hostages may have been removed during the recent fighting and transferred to the Bekaa Valley, where 2,000 Iranian Revolutionary Guards are said to be stationed, or to a safe house in Lebanon, possibly the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

For the past two weeks, about 7,000 Syrian soldiers, supported by tanks and artillery, have ringed the Beirut suburbs, and this has been widely regarded as an implied threat to use military force against the Hezbollah should the negotiations collapse.

The Syrians have maintained a “deterrent force” of about 25,000 men in Lebanon for several years. But there have been recent reports that troops based in the Bekaa Valley have been moved into Beirut to support the encirclement of the suburbs and that fresh troops have been sent in from Syria to replace them in the valley.

With the reported agreement with Hezbollah, the Syrians have achieved an important political victory that will have an impact beyond the borders of Lebanon. For example, the Syrians can now attend a scheduled meeting of Arab leaders in Algiers next month with convincing evidence that Syria can bend Iran to its will.

“The Iranians have backed down from a confrontation,” a diplomat in Damascus said. “It is impossible to believe that Assad received the Hezbollah delegation unless they were flying the white flag of surrender.”

Despite his alliance with Iran, Assad has been hostile to the Muslim fundamentalists ever since they revolted in the Syrian town of Hama in 1982. The Syrian army laid siege to the town, and more than 10,000 people were killed.

In the diplomats’ opinion, Iran may have given in to the Syrians out of concern that a Syrian military move against the suburb would wipe out the only successful export of the Iranian revolution.

The Iranians also may have been concerned about damaging their strategic relationship with Syria at a time when they have suffered defeats on the battlefield with Iraq and the United States. Damascus is one of their last friends in the Middle East, if not in the entire world.

Fighting between the Amal and Hezbollah first erupted in southern Lebanon in February, after the abduction of U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, who was attached to a U.N. observer group. Amal forces were able to defeat the Iranian-backed fighters and take control of the south.

When fighting erupted in southern Beirut two weeks ago, the table were turned. The sprawling suburbs were home to an estimated 6,000 Hezbollah fighters who were armed and paid by Iran. Within a short time, Hezbollah defeated Amal in all but two neighborhoods.

By allowing the Syrians to enter the suburbs, Hezbollah will be relinquishing control of its last center of power in Lebanon--a major concession. It was not clear whether it will be obliged to surrender the areas captured from Amal in the recent fighting.

By some estimates, at least half of the estimated 1 million people who lived in the shantytowns south of Beirut fled during the recent fighting. They will presumably seek to return under the agreement.

The security plan also bodes well for Syria’s efforts to achieve a political compromise in Lebanon in advance of the presidential election scheduled there for September. The United States has taken an active part in the talks on a political settlement.

The Syrian official complained that Syria’s efforts to reach a political settlement were being hampered by the United States, which he said had given support to the Christian militia and encouraged Israel to attack southern Lebanon.

“We take it as our responsibility to settle the situation in Lebanon and stop Israeli expansion in the country,” he said. “We will not retreat at all.”