Word: aminations
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...talk briefly about the cease-fire negotiations. Then Amin leans forward and, chopping the air for emphasis, he says, "Our target is not the ceasefire. We want one, but it is not our goal. Everyone needs the cease-fire now. It may be destructive for us, but it is for them too. The goal is the withdrawal of all foreign forces. The battle in the mountains has had two aspects. In one sense it has been a sideshow to prevent Lebanon from asking for complete [foreign] withdrawal. In another, I think they wanted to come into Beirut and overthrow...
...Sheik Amin, as he is known, was sitting alone in his library, a large, comfortable room with red leather furniture and a grand piano. He likes classical music, particularly Beethoven and Wagner, and has had a small music room built beside the palace tennis court. Amin has not been able to play tennis, his favorite sport, for more than three weeks now, and he misses the exercise. Tonight he is in his casual clothes: an open-neck shirt, windbreaker, slacks and black loafers. The trip to the front has been exhausting, but he is lit up, his color high...
...steward brings whisky and soda as Amin reflects on his first year in office. "Every day has been like a year," he says. "Events have not made it easy on me. I've had important responsibilities before, as an M.P. and a member of the [Phalange] party politburo. Then there was the war between the Lebanese militias and the Palestinians." He pauses and runs his hand through his glossy black hair. Like many Lebanese Christians, the President does not consider that Lebanon ever had a civil war. He mentions two great disasters of the 1975-76 war, the destruction...
...Amin is interrupted by a loud explosion. There is the unmistakable sound of machine-gun and small-arms fire. By this time we have been joined by Wadi Haddad, the President's national security adviser. He goes to the window, looks out and then returns. No one has made a move for the shelter, where the army has been forcing the President to spend each night...
...Amin resumes: "It's been like this since August. I've grown used to it, but I miss my family. Yesterday 1 went to Bikfaya [the Gemayels' village in the mountain district northeast of Beirut]. It was another world. Did you know my house there had been shelled? My wife was in the room next to where the shell exploded. But of course I can't bring them here. I don't know if any President in the world has been in such a situation...