sentences:  A longtime member of both the Palestine National Council and of its central council, Sabbagh provided crucial international contacts for Arafat during the 1970s and 1980s.Most controversially, his 1978 meeting with the Phalange, first agreed to and then denounced by Arafat, provoked condemnation from the Lebanese and Syrian governments as well as from Palestinian opposition groups.In 1988, his active support encouraged Arafat to steer the Palestine Liberation Organization firmly toward a renewed peace initiative.