WASHINGTON: President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing of France says his meetings with President Gerald Ford did not produce agreement in his dispute with Washington over France’s policy on export of nuclear processing plants. In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press broadcast yesterday [May 23] Mr Giscard defended France’s sale of a processing plant to Pakistan, saying the transaction had “all possible guarantees” against its use for the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Giscard said: “The type of plant sold to Pakistan normally is used for producing fuel for electrical power and not for producing armament”. — News agencies

[Meanwhile, according to news agencies from Beirut,] More heavy fighting raged in eastern and northern Lebanon and Beirut today [May 24] as the Palestine Liberation Organisation joined Lebanese Muslims in rejecting President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s offer to send French troops to end the 14-month-old Civil war. Police reported 17 persons killed and 15 wounded during the night. They said the heaviest fighting was between the beleaguered Christian town of Zahleh, 35 miles east of Beirut, and a string of neighbouring Muslim villages.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2026