Word: assad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...lots of losers. The Reagan Administration is now without an ongoing peace strategy for the Middle East. Hussein is more vulnerable than ever to the Syrians and to his own Palestinian population. He will probably feel a need to seek closer ties with his old adversary Syrian President Hafez Assad. The breakdown in talks may precipitate a new round of violence by Palestinians, who see diplomacy failing once again to resolve their problems. And it vastly increases the likelihood that Peres will be obliged to exchange jobs in the fall with Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir, head of the Likud. Under...
...accord was signed by leaders of Lebanon's Druze and Shi'ite Muslim militias and even by Hobeika, but was turned down by Gemayel because it would have reduced the Christian community's political power. The enraged Syrians told Gemayel, following his eleventh meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad, "There will not be a twelfth summit." Renewed fighting immediately broke out in Lebanon, and worse was expected. Concluded Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt: "We are back to the language...
...Israelis, concerned that the Syrian reinforcements would make Israeli reconnaissance flights exceedingly dangerous, asked the U.S. for help. Acknowledging to U.S. Envoy Richard Murphy that Israel had erred in firing at the Syrian planes, Peres persuaded the American, who was in Damascus at the time, to urge President Hafez Assad to withdraw the missile batteries...
After reportedly receiving from Murphy vague Israeli assurances that such air clashes would be avoided in the future, Assad withdrew the mobile missile batteries from Lebanon. That gesture eased tensions somewhat, but Assad left the SA-2s in place within Syria along the Lebanese border, perpetuating Israeli fears that the reconnaissance flights would still be threatened...
...whole affair secret, even to the point of asking newspaper editors not to print stories about it. Foreign observers concluded from this that the Israelis, though they later leaked some of the details of the Syrian missile emplacements to reporters, were trying hard to avoid a confrontation. As for Assad, he had obviously felt obliged to respond to the loss of his planes. But he knows the limitations of his air force, and seemed unlikely to risk an open fight with the Israelis. Overall, the U.S. felt that whatever tension had existed earlier was easing...