Kim Ghattas

So he agrees on the exit and the negotiations around that are very complicated.

So it's quite complicated to negotiate this exit because the Israelis are adamant that Americans and Palestinians will not sit in the same room, that there can be no direct contact between the Palestinians and the Americans.

So all of the back channels that I described in the past are still secret.

And during the middle of a war, when you're trying to negotiate something, it really helps to be face-to-face with the people you're trying to negotiate this with.

There was a time when Ambassador Dillon could just call a number and get a Palestinian official on the other line, including sometimes Arafat himself, something that the Israelis, I'm sure, found out about and were furious about doing.

as well.

But in this particular situation, they did not want the Americans and the Palestinians to sit in the same room.

And actually, practically, it wasn't possible because by then the Americans had vacated their embassy in West Beirut.

They were sitting all working in the residence of the American ambassador outside of Beirut, overlooking the city.

It was too dangerous to go in and out of a city that was being bombed by the Israelis.

The American officials in Beirut were sending signals back to Washington to say, you know, you've got to stop this.

Ambassador Dillon himself told me about how he was trying to plead again with his capital.

American-made bombs are killing Lebanese and Palestinian civilians.

This has got to stop.

So the negotiations happen indirectly via Lebanese messengers who go into West Beirut, relay the American proposal, bring back the Palestinian proposal.

And there is an agreement that the Palestinians will leave Lebanon.

They will leave their weapons behind.

They can take a few light arms.

There is a lot of talk about bringing on their, you know, Jeeps or APC or whatever they had at the time.

That's a no.