In January 1976, a Syrian proposal to restore the limits to the Palestinian guerrilla presence in Lebanon, which had been in place prior to the outbreak of the civil war, was welcomed by Maronites, but rejected by the Palestinian guerrillas. In October 1976, at a meeting of the Arab League, Syria accepted a ceasefire. The League ministers decided to expand an existing small Arab peacekeeping force in Lebanon, but it grew to be a large Arab Deterrent Force consisting almost entirely of Syrian troops. The Syrian military intervention was thus legitimized and received subsidies from the Arab League for its activities.Weisburd, 1997, pp. 156-157. Throughout the years of occupation, the Assad regime advocated the irredentist notion of "Greater Syria" ("al-Suriyya al-Kubra"), implementing various steps to integrate Lebanon into the Syrian fold.
