Accord Sets Up Five-Nation Monitoring Group for Lebanon Cease-Fire

The United States and four other countries have approved long-stalled arrangements to monitor a cease-fire in Lebanon, the State Department said Friday.

Because it involves Israel and Syria as well as the United States, Lebanon and France, the agreement is seen by the Clinton administration as a potentially important vehicle for bringing Israel and Syria into contact at a time when the future of their broader peace negotiations is unclear.

“I wouldn’t seek to over-dramatize it, but it is, I think, a useful indicator that both the new [Israeli] government and the Syrians and Lebanese were interested in finding ways to defuse tensions and interested in showing that they could do business,” a senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the accord.

The agreement sets up a five-nation monitoring group based in the southern Lebanese border town of Naqoura. It would check compliance with the April 27 cease-fire, which ended an Israeli blitz against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon who were firing rockets into Israel.

The Lebanon truce--negotiated by Secretary of State Warren Christopher--bans the targeting of civilians by either side but allows combatants the right of retaliation.