cabinet meeting, 14 april 1976

7/28/2019 Cabinet Meeting, 14 April 1976

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MEMORANDUMTHE WHITE HOUSE

G Ol'iFIDEP'tTI:!d::r- WASHINGTON

SECRETARY KISSINGER'S COMMENTS AT CABINET MEETING

Wednesday - April 14, 1976

Kissinger : There are basically three interlocking i ssues in Lebanon:the relationship of the Christ ian and Moslem community; the relationship between moderates and radicals; and the role of outside pow ers.AU these a re important factors in the cur rent dispute.The f i rs t point is at issue because the relisioug division i s no longer50- 50. The Moslems are insist ing that the poli t ical power reflectreality. The radicals want to go fur ther and make Lebanon a secularstate - - Jurnblatt is one of these .The outside power line up is like this:

Syria supports the Chris t ians and the moderates ,Iraq and Libya support the radica ls ,Egypt supports the radicals against Syria.The Soviet Union supports Syria but also the radicals .Is rae l is opposed to Syrian intervention so objectivelyis supporting the FLO

.;;.."" -:tw ';::. We have been support ing the Syrian poli t ical solution ~ ~ but not the mili tary solution. :::; L" (!)I-U ') . . . .

Q ! 5 [Descr ibes the political situation. ] .W (. ) ell .. .it : w W II.. . . . O ' ) . . , . , ~

I I ~ .c:, What could happen? I t could blow up and Syria might inte rvene. Then_ I ~ Israel would intervene and we would have a Middle East war and a probableS oil embargo. The best outcome would be a poli t ical settlement, but with _ a weakened PLO. This could leave an opening for a comprehensive, _ settlement next year.

~ > r ~ C", \Zm CLASSIFIED BY , , ~ ~ ' ) , r ~ : t : : 2; C ~ r < ' J ' ~ ; X :EXEMPT FROM GENERAL DECLASSIFICATION;:::''';'CONFIDENTIAl:,. SCHEDULE OF EXECUTIVE OR :


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GONFIDENTIAb - 2 -

Scranton: I f any of the people attacking Secre ta ry Kissinger in the papertoday were in charge, we would not be in the condition we are nor havethe opp ortunit ies we have through a maste r fu l handling of this incrediblycomplex si tuat ion by Sec re tary Kissinger .[Some Pres ident and Kissinger d iscuss ions of the threat of Syrian in te r -vention in March and the predictions by King Hussein. ]Pres ident : What is the meaning of the West Bank election?Kiss inger: That should be a warning to the Is rae l i s that we need to move.

One other word. I am going to Africa next week. I will .


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DEClASSifIEDE.O. 12868, SEC. 3.5

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cabinet meeting, 14 april 1976

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