Lebanon: Negotiators propose four-point peace plan
Palestinian mediators pressed for a negotiated solution to a weeklong siege of a refugee camp in Lebanon, with the Lebanese government demanding the surrender of Islamic militants inside.
Palestinian factions have presented the Lebanese government with a four-point plan aimed at a peaceful resolution to the camp standoff, Abu Imad Rifai, a representative of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, said yesterday.
The plan calls for a cease-fire, the creation of a Palestinian security force to maintain law and order in the camp, the barring of other armed groups in the camp and the creation of “a mechanism for the departure” of Fatah Islam from the camp, Rifai said.
However, the plan falls short of Lebanese government demands for the handover of the militants.
“The repercussions of a military solution are much more serious than a political solution,” Rifai said, in a clear warning that a military assault on Nahr el-Bared, in Tripoli, would trigger violence in Lebanon’s 11 other Palestinian refugee camps.
Last night, a hand grenade thrown at security forces at a major Beirut intersection slightly wounded two policemen, a soldier and two passing civilians, police said.
The grenade was thrown off a bridge and fell near a checkpoint in a Sunni Muslim neighbourhood.
The assailants fled, and police pursued them.
