Rival Christian Chiefs May Act to Oust Gemayel

BEIRUT — Leaders of two rival Christian factions opposed to President Amin Gemayel held their first talks in seven years Wednesday, raising the possibility of a move to oust Gemayel from office.

Christian militia boss Elie Hobeika traveled from his stronghold in East Beirut and met with former President Suleiman Franjieh, a pro-Syrian Christian Maronite, at the veteran politician’s summer palace in Ehden, 38 miles northeast of Beirut.

“The positive points reached in this meeting will be translated on the ground,” Hobeika, leader of the Lebanese Forces militia, later told Franjieh’s Radio Unified Free Lebanon. He did not elaborate.

The radio quoted sources as saying the meeting was “very positive.”

Last week, leaders of the rival Shia and Druze Muslim militias agreed to work together on a Syrian-backed security plan to bring peace to Beirut and Lebanon.

The Christian talks coincided with the Shias’ Amal militia moving 50 Syrian-supplied tanks to positions around predominantly Muslim West Beirut and around Palestinian refugee camps in the capital and in the southern port city of Sidon.

‘Political Bombshell’

The leftist newspaper As Safir described the first meeting since June, 1978, between the two key Christian leaders as “a political bombshell” that “will be a main turning point in the history of the Lebanese crisis.”

“We had a bitter experience with the regime and President Gemayel . . . and despite this we continued contacts with him and tried to have a dialogue with Syria through him,” Hobeika’s political adviser, Karim Pakradouni, said.

Hobeika’s Lebanese Forces rebelled in March against the leadership of Gemayel, who is a Christian Falangist.

‘A Real Conciliation’

“We are now having another try which will not involve President Gemayel,” Pakradouni said. “What we are witnessing is a real reconciliation and unification of the Christian camp, which will contribute to the unification of Lebanon.”

He said Syria has blessed the reconciliation between the 75-year-old Franjieh and Hobeika.

A devout anti-Israeli, Franjieh had blamed the Lebanese Forces for the killing of his elder son, Tony, and of more than 30 of his followers in June, 1978.

Franjieh said in an interview Wednesday, “The head of state (Gemayel) is sick, and the only way for Lebanon to become healthy again is cutting off this head.

“If that can be done through constitutional means, so much the better, because other methods mean a dangerous precedent which I do not favor,” Franjieh told the independent Christian newspaper Al Anwar.

Franjieh’s remarks indicated he is opposed to military action to force Gemayel from office--an option often advocated by several of Franjieh’s Muslim friends, including Druze militia chief Walid Jumblatt.