Arab League Calls for Truce in Lebanon : Will Send Observers to Monitor It, Urges End of Port Blockades

Arab League foreign ministers called today for a cease-fire in Lebanon to begin at noon Friday and said they will send observers to monitor it.

The ministers also said blockades of Lebanon’s ports should be lifted. The blockades by the Christian side touched off six weeks of intensive fighting between Christian and Muslim forces that have left more than 270 people dead.

In Lebanon, Christian army commander Michel Aoun said his troops will cooperate with the observer force and honor the truce. There was no comment from the Muslim side.

The observer force would be deployed along Beirut’s dividing Green Line and other flash points in the hills above the Lebanese capital, according to a text of the committee’s plan published today in Beirut newspapers.

‘Without Delay’

Its main task would be monitoring the cease-fire, and officers would have no right to use arms except in self-defense, according to the text.

The Council of Ministers from the 22 member countries, after nearly seven hours of discussions, did not say how many observers will be sent or when, saying only that the plan should be carried out “without delay.”

Sources said the council recommended stationing 312 Arab observers in Beirut.

Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh of Syria told reporters at the close of the session that his country is ready to give any aid a special six-member Arab League committee will need to help end the fighting.

Syrian Troops Involved

About 40,000 Syrian troops are based in Lebanon under a 1976 Arab League peacekeeping mandate. Syria maintains that it is not part of the conflict.

However, the Syrian army, in alliance with Druze warlord Walid Jumblatt’s Progressive Socialist Party militia of about 7,000 men, has been fighting Aoun’s 20,000 Christian troops since March 8.

Aoun, who has said he will drive out the Syrians if Beirut has to be destroyed, is supported by Iraq in the fighting.

An Arab League delegation also met today in Washington with Secretary of State James A. Baker III to discuss the cease-fire plan.