Navy shells Beirut

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U.S. policy in Lebanon has been badly shaken in the wake of renewed fighting that has forced the resignations of Lebanese President Amin Gemayel's cabinet and nearly toppled Gemayel himself. The United States government has been attempting through the alternate use of diplomacy and military shows of force to prop up the Gemayel government. However, after a deadlock in "national reconciliation" talks between Syria, the Lebanese government, and Shiite and Druse opponents of Gemayel, renewed fighting broke out. On Feb. 6, in only one-and-a-half hours, Moslem militias overran West Beirut. The Lebanese army, already badly demoralized, suffered mass desertions. French and American troops stood by helplessly as the Green Line separating Moslem West Beirut from Christian East Beirut was re-established.

Americans retreat

In the face of the breakdown of the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, U.S. allies have been anxious to extricate themselves from the situation. Some, like Britain, have already announced their intentions to depart, while others tie their departure to the U.S. plans for withdrawal.

In the meantime, U.S. battleships continue to pound Syrian lines and the Beirut suburbs. One Syrian general has been reported killed by the shelling. Druse leaders have accused the U.S. Navy of indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas in the Moslem sectors.

The U.S. shelling came as Reagan announced a policy of phased withdrawal of U.S. forces from Beirut to warships off the coast of Lebanon. This was a reversal of his previous policy that he had defended in his Jan. 25 State of the Union address: "We must have the courage to give peace a chance. And we must not be driven from our objectives of peace in Lebanon by state-sponsored terrorism."

Syria and the United States Because Syria has important influence over the Moslem militias-they are their main supplier of weaponry-and because it occupies a portion of Lebanese territory, the Reagan administration has sought in a variety of ways to gain Syrian acceptance of the Gemayel government. Initially the United States engaged in a policy of military pressure designed to coerce Syria into (1) withdrawing from those parts of Lebanon it controls, and (2) allowing the rightist Lebanese government to gain control over the areas of Lebanon under Moslem control. Later it appeared that the United States would be willing to see a diplomatic solution to the Lebanese crisis that allowed Syria to retain control over the Bekaa valley, so long as the other areas of Lebanon were consolidated under the control of the central Lebanese government.

Israel has stated its unwillingness to become deeply involved in the current crisis in Beirut. Despite some recent shelling of the Beirut area, Israel still has to contend with the economic costs of the occupation of southern Lebanon, the