Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...immediate, angry reaction in the Arab world highlighted the deep rifts that exist among kidnapping clans inside Lebanon. Hours before Leyraud disappeared, Lebanon's most influential Shi'ite cleric, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, renewed his persistent calls for a freeing of all foreign hostages. In successive interviews with British and American journalists, Fadlallah insisted that "the ploys of hostage dealing have been exhausted" and that even Iranian hard-liners "desire an end to the whole problem...
...Rafsanjani, who knows improved relations with the West hinge on the happy resolution of the hostage drama, undoubtedly ordered or at least pressed for the release of McCarthy and Tracy. He may also have acted out of fear that Iran is becoming too isolated. "Iran's only Arab ally, Syria, is shifting strongly toward the U.S.," says a White House official. "Iran finds itself playing no role in the move toward a Middle East peace conference...
Ryan's plan slowly, oh, so slowly, gains ground, not only in Washington and Rome but also in Israel and various Arab states. The CIA man is modestly gratified: "It would be nice, he thought, to set that whole area to rest." But there are evil people who do not want Ryan's plan to succeed, and they are . scattered from the Middle East through Europe and North America. This exfoliating network of malcontents also has access to a fearsome means of getting the U.S. and what remains of the Soviet Union back at each other's throats, with nuclear...
Even cases of apparent fraud can fall into a gray area. Among the most serious charges Western countries have leveled at B.C.C.I. are accusations that it fraudulently concealed huge off-the-books loans to wealthy Middle East investors. But sources in the Persian Gulf note that Arab bankers have traditionally made large loans to the region's royal families and wealthy merchants without demanding the documentation Westerners would require...
...Arabs often see no need for such records, financial experts say, because they trust leaders such as Sheik Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan, the ruler of Abu Dhabi who controls 77% of B.C.C.I., to stand behind their debts and those of their subjects. And they see no need to keep records for the taxman, since the six Arab states in the gulf collect no taxes...