1.
GV PAN FROM: Damascus street to office of President Hafez al-Assad.
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2.
CU: guard at gate
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3.
SV INTERIOR: Lebanese Foreign Minister, Fouad Butros, seated with Assad. (3 shots)
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Initials RH/1649



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Background: In Lebanon, civil war still rages in the south, where left and right-wing forces exchange frequent artillery fire in the area south of the Litani river, where Israel has said it will not tolerate Arab peace-keeping forces, made up mainly of Syrians.

SYNOPSIS: It was against this background that Lebanese Foreign Minister Fouad Butros went to Damascus for talks with Syrian President Hafez al-Assad to prepare for a long awaited summit between the Lebanese and Syrian presidents. Mr Butros delivered to the Syrian President a personal message from Lebanese President Elias Sarkis. The usually well-informed Beirut daily, Al Anwar said the Lebanese Foreign Minister would also be preparing the ground for a six-sided summit which would bring together the leaders of Lebanon, Syria Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Such a meeting is expected to focus on the troubled south of Lebanon and the 1969 Cairo agreement regulating the Palestinian presence in Lebanon.