The Lebanon War: U.S. Officials Discuss Fate of PLO

After weeks of fighting, the IDF surrounded Beirut and demanded that the PLO leadership be expelled from Lebanon. Two State Department officials, Charlie Hill and Morris Draper discuss whether Palestinians in Lebanon should be sent to Syria or elsewhere. Israel indicated an interest in sending them to Syria and exchanging Palestinian and Syrian prisoners for Israeli POWs and the bodies of dead soldiers. The focus of the discussion is on deporting the PLO to Lebanon, but Tunis is also mentioned as a possible location for separating the leaders, who Draper believes would prefer the “easy living” there. Ultimately, Yasser Arafat and his minions were sent to Tunis. Click here to read the entire report.

Source: U.S. State Department