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With Syrian ground forces in control of Beirut airport and the port of Tripoli, and Syrian missile boats sealing off the ports of Sidon and Tyre against arms and ammunition resupply-for leftist and Palestinian forces, both Arafat and the leader of the Lebanese left, Kamal Jumblatt, were under pressure to come to an accommodation. Beirut remained under Syrian siege, its food and gasoline supplies severely depleted, its hospitals filled with the victims of continuing sporadic fighting between right and left. If the end was not in sight, Assad's pressure gamble appeared to be making slow headway. "Middle East crises have a habit of zigging and zagging unexpectedly," cabled TIME Middle East Correspondent Wilton Wynn from Damascus, "but for the moment Assad seems to be ahead of the game."
* After the crossing point between Israeli and Jordanian territory in pre-1967 Jerusalem.