Lebanese Christian Militia Backs Aoun as Syrian Forces Gather : Middle East: The standoff raises fears of heavy fighting unless there is a political solution.

Hundreds of Syrian tanks, together with troops and supply trucks, moved into position around the Christian enclave in Beirut, while the largest of Lebanon’s Christian militias threw its support behind Maj. Gen. Michel Aoun, the beleaguered Christian army commander.

The decision by the militia group known as the Lebanese Forces to back Aoun with its 6,000 soldiers caused fear on both sides that the bloodiest confrontation of the nation’s 14-year-old civil war lies just ahead.

A spokesman for President Elias Hrawi’s new coalition government said it had no plans to invade Aoun’s fortress in the presidential palace. But long lines of tanks, ammunition trucks, bulldozers and troop carriers rolled in from Syria and took up positions around the Christian enclave, news agencies reported from Beirut.

Hrawi’s government Tuesday dismissed Aoun as commander of the army. Aoun, who had headed an interim Christian government since last year, rejected a plan brokered by the Arab League for a new reconciliation Lebanese government because it fails to provide for the immediate withdrawal of Syria’s 40,000 troops from Lebanon.

Aoun placed his 15,000 fighters on maximum alert and strengthened defenses around the 310-square-mile Christian sector. Still, he said he is open to any settlement that would “safeguard the minimum, fundamental rights of the Lebanese people.”

Some political analysts said the standoff could last for days, with both sides waiting to see if a political solution can be worked out. But others said it is not likely that Syria will agree to Aoun’s longstanding demand for a timetable for withdrawing its troops.

“Unless Aoun is willing to compromise,” one said, “unless he gives in totally to spare the people who are supporting him, then there’s going to be a massacre.”

Aoun has an estimated 15,000 regular Christian army troops in his camp, but is heavily outgunned by an equal number of Lebanese Muslim militiamen and the Syrian troops who control two-thirds of Lebanon.

France, which historically has supported Lebanon’s Maronite Christian community, has come out in support of the new Christian-Muslim government.

In an interview with the French radio station Europe 1, Aoun said he invited France to negotiate a compromise so long as it does not give up “the fundamental rights of the Lebanese people, above all their right to self-determination . . . independence and dignity.”

Edmund Rizk, a member of the right-wing Christian Falangist Party and minister of information in the new government, insisted that there are no plans to invade. He pleaded with Aoun to “give peace a chance.”

“Those who say there will be an invasion are either deceived or deceivers, because the state’s choice is for peace, and its will is to unite the country,” Rizk said.

Addressing his remarks to Aoun and his fellow Christians in East Beirut, Rizk said, “How could you easily change your convictions and believe that we would accept committing a massacre?”

It was regarded as highly significant that Samir Geagea, commander of the Lebanese Forces, had thrown his support to Aoun. For weeks, the Lebanese Forces had been a question mark in the power struggle between Aoun and the new government.

The Lebanese Forces and Aoun’s regular army units clashed earlier this year in a dispute over fund-raising, and Aoun was angered recently when the Lebanese Front, a political and militia alliance that includes the Lebanese Forces, supported the Arab League-brokered peace plan creating the new coalition government.

Geagea said Wednesday his troops are pledged to defend “every village, soldier and civilian.”

The Falangist Party militia, which controls about 2,000 troops, called for opposition to any attempt to infiltrate Christian areas.