Lebanon Peace Plan Endorsed by Muslim Leaders, Patriarch

Muslim leaders and Lebanon’s Christian patriarch voiced support for a new Arab League peace plan, but Lebanese adversaries continued to battle Sunday as mediators struggled to implement a truce.

Christian army leader Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun indicated in an interview broadcast Sunday that he would reject any reforms giving Lebanese Muslims more say in Lebanon’s political system unless all foreign forces pulled out.

Aoun declared his position in a television interview taped Saturday as the peace plan was about to be announced. He has not issued a formal reaction since the plan was made public.

Algerian envoy Lakhdar Ibrahimi arrived in Beirut on Sunday to brief Lebanese leaders on the plan after talks with Syrian officials in Damascus.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted an unnamed official as supportive of the plan.

Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, spiritual leader of the Maronite Catholics, thanked the Arab League committee for “the great effort it is exerting to silence the guns.”

Police said one person was killed and 14 wounded in night-long artillery clashes in and around Beirut that subsided into intermittent machine-gun exchanges at dawn.

The Arab League peace plan was drawn up by a committee comprising Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. It calls for an end to a Syrian sea siege of the Christian enclave, a ban on arms shipments and the convening of Parliament on Sept. 30 to discuss political reforms and Syria’s military presence.