Word: assad
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Neither the Christians nor their foes are backing away from the prospect Of more slaughter. "As long as the Syrians are in Lebanon, there is no peace," warned Chamoun last week. Equally adamant was Syrian President Hafez Assad, who insisted that his troops had opened fire on the Christians in order to "establish the authority of the Sarkis government." But when the Lebanese President proposed that a buffer force of Lebanese soldiers be deployed between the Christians and Syrians, Assad had a brusque reply: "There is no Lebanese army, and what there is represents the Christians." After Sarkis completed...
...Assad fears that the Christians might eventually link the portions of southern Lebanon under their control into a pro-Israeli buffer zone. Conversely, Israel fears that the defeat of Christian forces may leave Lebanon in the hands of radical Muslim leftists and Palestinians-in effect creating a new "confrontation" state. TIME has learned that two months ago, Assad attempted to cut his losses in Lebanon by bluntly demanding that the Christians make a final choice between Israel and the Arab states. Chamoun's reply: "We choose the Israelis." At that point Assad decided to cripple the militias...
...effort to stiffen Assad's resolve to stay on in Lebanon, Iraq's radical regime offered last week to send its own troops to the Golan Heights. Assad, who has quarreled bitterly with the Iraqis, was bound to reject their dubious offer. His determination to solve his Lebanese dilemma was probably hardened by the success of the Camp David peace talks, which foreshadowed a separate peace between Egypt and Israel. Such a development would leave Israel free to concentrate its massive firepower on Syria and other "rejectionist" Arab states...
...greatest danger was that the conflict would provoke Israeli intervention on behalf of the reeling Christians. Seeking to prevent the war from spreading, Jimmy Carter sent an appeal to Assad in Moscow, urging him toward "a separation of forces." He followed up by asking Israeli Premier Menachem Begin to refrain from intervening in the conflict. Carter also asked Soviet Premier Leonid Brezhnev to exert his "considerable influence in the area" to help arrange a truce. At the urging of the U.S., the U.N. Security Council adopted a cease-fire resolution...
...state visit to Moscow last week, Syrian President Hafez Assad joined Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev in a communiqué denouncing the "separate Camp David deal" as a "collusion arranged behind the back of the Arab nations," which would make an overall Middle East settlement "significantly more difficult." Both Assad and Brezhnev also demanded the resumption of a Geneva conference, under joint U.S. and U.S.S.R. sponsorship, which would work out a settlement based on unconditional Israeli withdrawal from all occupied territories...