The World - News from May 22, 1989

Lebanon’s rival leaders united in pleading with the Arab League to save their country from destruction even though they remain as divided as ever on a solution to the crisis. Acting Premier Salim Hoss, a Sunni Muslim, said in a memorandum to the league--which starts its summit Tuesday in Morocco--that the solution lies in reforms giving Muslims, unofficially estimated to form a majority of Lebanon’s 3.5 million people, an equal share in power with Christians before the election of a new president. But the rival Christian-led administration of Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun insists on the withdrawal of all foreign troops as a main condition of any political settlement. Syria maintains about 40,000 troops in Lebanon.