DAMASCUS: Palestinian guerrilla chief Yasser Arafat said … there was a conspiracy to partition Lebanon and turn it into another Cyprus. But he vowed that Lebanon would remain a united Arab entity. Arafat was addressing a … conference by the Front for support of the Palestinian Revolution — a gathering of 50 Arab leftist political parties and labour organisations… . “...I declare that Lebanon and the Lebanese people support the Palestinian Revolution and that Lebanon will remain Arab”.

“All the isolationist forces, and the conspirators behind them, should understand that the conspiracy — which broke out after Egypt and Israel signed the Sinai Agreement — will be foiled… .” The guerrilla chief, who met Syrian President Hafez Assad earlier in the day, said Syria would attempt to redress the Arab-Israeli military balance tipped in Israel’s favour after the signing of the Sinai Agreement… . …Arafat said the Israeli war machine, if it were massed on the Syrian front, and coupled with an “imperialist-Zionist offensive, was bound to be smashed in the Golan and on the rock of the Palestinian Revolution”… The conference urged Arab States to sink their “marginal … differences”.

Published in Dawn, October 25th, 2025