Talks on Peace in Lebanon Open in Saudi Resort

The Lebanese Parliament, divided and decimated by 14 years of civil war, unofficially convened for the first time in more than a year Saturday with a vow to “show that the Lebanese want to live together.”

“The Lebanese people look at this as a turning point,” Parliament Speaker Hussein Husseini said at the beginning of talks on a proposed “national reconciliation charter” to restructure the government, elect a new president and end the fighting.

“Our success opens the way for peace. Our failure opens the way to hell and chaos. We have to succeed,” Husseini declared.

Sixty-two of the Parliament’s 73 surviving members arrived for talks in this resort community perched in the mountains above the smothering heat of the Saudi desert. Called together by a three-member Arab League committee that engineered a shaky cease-fire Sept. 23, the Parliament launched a series of closed-door meetings on political reforms that would give Muslims a stronger voice in the government and eventually lead to the withdrawal of foreign troops from Lebanon.

Warring factions have temporarily dropped their guns but remain bitterly divided over what course the reforms should take, leaving grave doubts about whether any real agreement can be reached during this week’s informal sessions.

But the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, opening the talks with a statement from King Fahd, urged the deputies to use the committee’s proposed reconciliation charter as a starting point from which to work out an agreement.

“The past 14 years of war did not achieve anything. The time is now ripe to stop the shelling and accusations and start building peace with wisdom, patience and intelligence,” he said.

“You must rely on yourselves and prove to the world that you can achieve peace. The issue is now in your hands.”

The debate appeared bound for deadlock last week when Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, commander of the Maronite Christian forces and head of Lebanon’s provisional Christian government, vowed to oppose implementation of political reforms unless the Arab League guarantees a pullout of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

40,000 Syrian Troops

Damascus, which has an estimated 40,000 troops in the country under what began as a 1976 peacekeeping mandate, has already declared that it will not withdraw until political reforms are in place giving Muslims a stronger voice in the government.

The proposed new charter drawn up by the Arab League committee calls for redeploying Syrian troops to eastern Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley but gives them two years after a new, united government takes power to do so.

The heart of the proposal is a plan for the Christians, once the most populous sect in Lebanon, to surrender their historic dominance to a partnership with the Muslims.

The proposal suggests increasing the seats in Parliament from 99 to 128, to be divided equally between Muslims and Christians. At the same time, it would strip the authority of the president, traditionally a Christian, to appoint and dismiss prime ministers and vest that authority instead with Parliament.

Lebanon has been without a head of state since September, 1988, when the deeply divided Parliament was unable to elect a successor to former President Amin Gemayel.

The political crisis led to the most vicious fighting of the civil war. Aoun, convinced that foreign intervention is to blame for Lebanon’s problems, vowed to rout Syrian forces from the country. The Syrians retaliated with their own blockades of Christian ports and with stepped-up military support for Muslim militias.

Nearly 900 people have died in the latest round of fighting.

The last full meeting of Parliament was in June, 1988. Of that body’s 99 original deputies, all elected in Lebanon’s last national elections in 1972, only 73 survive.

Because the Parliament cannot legally convene outside Lebanon, any agreement reached here would have to be ratified inside the country.

The deputies recessed after the opening session, then went behind closed doors for another 2 1/2-hour meeting Saturday evening.

Saudi officials kept the deputies isolated in a hotel, at one point even cutting telephone lines in what may have been an attempt to avoid public posturing.

In a brief interview with reporters, former Prime Minister Saeb Salaam said he is hopeful that a resolution can be reached.

“I am always hopeful,” he added. “It’s my nature. But hope should help. We have so many problems.”