On Christopher, Arabs Are Cautious : Mideast: But some officials fear that he will take less activist role than his predecessor, Baker.

In the chilly no-man’s-land of southern Lebanon, where 396 Palestinian deportees remain the only obstacle to new talk of peace in the Middle East, the biggest news this week was not Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s ambitious regional tour to break the impasse.

For the deportees, Muslims expelled from their homes by Israel three months ago, the big event was the arrival of a satellite telephone--that and a giant tent and a makeshift university, dubbed this week the University of Return.

It is not that the deportees--who have vowed to reject any Israeli compromise short of an offer to take back all 396 of them at once--did not follow each of Christopher’s moves and the countermoves of the Arab world’s most powerful and influential leaders.

As Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, a thyroid specialist expelled from the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip, explained it Wednesday on the eve of the U.S. diplomat’s departure from the region: “We watched Christopher’s trip as if it were a football game. But we were not concerned who was the winner. We were not cheering for either side.”

For Zahar and his fellow deportees, the only real victory would be the Palestinians’ return and the resumption of negotiations that could bring peace to the troubled Middle East for the first time in more than three decades.

Until then, Zahar concluded, the status quo is victory enough. “By staying here, we are in the consciousness of the world,” he said.

But it was clear that the status quo was not enough to satisfy the rest of the Arab world--nations that were key stops in Christopher’s breakneck regional tour and that stand to gain significantly in real estate and internal stability if the Middle East peace talks resume.

Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh told reporters Tuesday after Christopher’s visit to Damascus that Syria considers the deportee issue “an obstacle to . . . the peace talks.”

Overall, Arab officials appeared heartened by Christopher’s trip, saying they have received indications that the United States will remain actively involved in the Middle East as long as there is a reason to do so.

“I believe the American Administration is going to continue along the same tradition as the previous Administration. They will get involved and be involved, I believe in a bigger way, in the peace process,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Amir Moussa said. “They are enthusiastic. They assess the importance of the peace process in a solid way, so we look forward with optimism to the role that will be played by the new Administration.”

Privately, however, some Arab diplomats said there are indications that Christopher will take a much less activist role in the Middle East than did his Republican predecessor, James A. Baker III.

“The previous Administration was willing to take the extra step, to come up with initiatives of their own to seduce the parties,” one Arab official said. “This Administration, it seems, is willing, is ready, but it is not going to attempt to seduce anyone into participating.”

One Arab diplomat said that Baker came to the region with plans and Christopher arrived ready to “listen attentively.”

Not everyone in the Arab world was enthusiastic about U.S. involvement in jump-starting the peace process. The Egyptian opposition, which has regarded the process with suspicion, was critical of Administration statements about the Christopher trip.

“When the American President warns the opponents of peace that there will be no tolerance of violence and intimidation, it reminds us of Pax Romana, which was imposed by the Roman Empire when it was at the apex of its might, on its colonies throughout the world,” Mohammed Asfour suggested in the Cairo opposition newspaper Al Wafd. “But Clinton and his subordinates will find many things establishing America’s unsuitableness as a neutral mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict.”

Asfour pointed to U.S. resistance to convening an internationally sponsored conference on the Middle East, as the Arabs have long sought. “All this establishes is that peace, according to the U.S. conception, is an Israeli solution imposed on the Arabs,” he asserted.

In Lebanon, commentators were enthusiastic about Christopher’s decision to stop in Beirut, the first visit to the war-torn country by a senior U.S. official in many years.

“It’s good to see Americans here again,” said Hussain Awada, a Beirut money-changer.

Times special correspondent Raschka reported from Beirut and Times staff writer Murphy from Cairo. Times staff writer Mark Fineman in Nicosia, Cyprus, contributed to this report.