LEBANON: FRENCH ENVOY ON PEACE MISSION AS FIGHTING BETWEEN SYRIAN AND CHRISTIAN FORCES CONTINUES

Record ID: 276622

  • Title: LEBANON: FRENCH ENVOY ON PEACE MISSION AS FIGHTING BETWEEN SYRIAN AND CHRISTIAN FORCES CONTINUES
  • Date: 30th August 1989
  • Summary: 1. GV, SVs: SCHEER WITH SFEIR (4 SHOTS) 0.14 2. GV: SCHEER LEAVES SFEIR MEETING 0.17 3. SV-PAN: SCHEER ARRIVES FOR TALKS WITH SHAMSEDDINE 0.25 4. SVs: SECURITY (2 SHOTS) 0.30 5. CU-ZOOM OUT, SV: SCHEER WITH SHAMSEDDINE (2 SHOTS) 0.45 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 14th September 1989 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIRUT, LEBANON
  • Country: Lebanon
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA2GAOU2DROQA19K3O1ZTSRCPSK
  • Story Text: BEIRUT, LEBANON

    French envoy Francois Scheer on Wednesday travelled across Beirut on his third day of talks with Beirut's leaders as Syrian forces and christian troops shelled each other for six hours.

    Scheer drove from the Christian sector across Beirut's dividing Green Line into west Beirut, despite mortar and sniper fire, to meet Sheik Mohammed Mehdi Shamseddine, the senior Shiite Moslem cleric in Lebanon. Two carloads of bodyguards escorted him.

    During a 45-minute meeting at Shamseddine's second-floor apartment five mortar rounds exploded nearby.

    Scheer and Shamseddine moved from his living room to an inside hallway of the 10-storey building for safety.

    Before meeting Shamseddine, Scheer talked for 90 minutes with Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, spiritual leader of the Maronite Catholic sect. That meeting took place at the mountain-peak resort of Bkirki north of Beirut.

    The envoy described the meeting as "useful" but declined comment on talks he held Tuesday with Aoun and acting Prime Minister Salim Hoss, Sunni Moslem.

    Scheer, secretary-general of France's Foreign Ministry, arrived in Beirut on Tuesday after two days of talks with Syrian leaders in Damascus seeking to arrange a cease-fire and reactivate stalled Arab League mediation.

    <strong>Source: REUTERS - ALI MOUSSA</strong>
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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