Word: assad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Little good news comes out of Beirut nowadays, but last week the headlines offered some cheer. Saudi Hostages Bakr Damanhouri and Khalid Deeb were freed, evidently thanks to pressure by Syrian President Hafez Assad. Damanhouri, a cultural officer at the Saudi embassy in Beirut, had been held by an unidentified terrorist faction. Deeb, 23, the son of a security official in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, had been kidnaped in late January, apparently by the partisans of Islamic Jihad. The pair's good fortune raised hopes that the Syrians might secure the release of at least some...
...Assad's influence in that troubled land has grown greatly since last month, when he dispatched 7,500 troops into West Beirut to restore order. Indeed, pressure to keep the hostages alive seems to be coming from all sides. The Revolutionary Justice Organization, which is composed of Shi'ite Muslim extremists, postponed plans last week to execute French Television Engineer Jean-Louis Normandin. The group had been warned not to kill him by both Syria and Shi'ite Muslim Cleric Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the spiritual leader of the pro-Iranian Hizballah (Party of God). Said Fadlallah: "You cannot confront...
This time a worried Assad decided to occupy West Beirut, the predominantly Muslim half of the divided Lebanese capital, because of what he regarded as an ominous series of threats to Syria's long-term strategic interests. In the first place he was concerned about the renewed strength of the P.L.O. in West Beirut, especially in the refugee camps of Sabra, Shatila and Burj el Barajneh. More specifically, he was angry about the resurgence of P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat, with whom Assad has been feuding for years. The one good thing about Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, from Assad...
...from the Maronite Christians and Sunni Muslims, who have divided most of the political spoils since Lebanon became independent of French rule in 1943. In recent months, however, Amal has lost ground within the Shi'ite community to the radical Hizballah (Party of God). Hizballah's rising power concerns Assad because the group, which is allied with Iran, has dreams of establishing an Iranian-style Islamic republic in Lebanon...
Alarmed by continuing anarchy and military threats to his ally, the Amal militia, President Hafez Assad attempts to impose order on the chaotic Lebanese capital. -- A power struggle breaks out in China that threatens Leader Deng Xiaoping. -- Mikhail Gorbachev' s glasnost worries Eastern Europe' s aging rulers. -- A life sentence for terrorism in Paris...