Word: assad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...true that many Palestinians prefer the radical governments of Syria and Libya over those of moderate Arab leaders. This attitude gained ground because the moderate King Hussein did not help the Palestinians when he had the chance in 1973, while Syria's Assad and Libya's Gaddafi have always been willing to aid the P.L.O...
...change in the Iraqi leadership would be welcomed not only by Saddam's domestic rivals but by another enemy, Syrian President Hafez Assad, and by Libyan Leader Muammar Gaddafi, both of whom enjoy Soviet backing and have helped Iran in the war. But Saddam Hussein's fall would cause great concern in the capitals of moderate Arab states, notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, which have been supporting Iraq. In consequence, the U.S. is also concerned. In a speech devoted entirely to Middle East policy, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations last...
...Syrian initiative, described as an attempt to keep the peace, succeeded in taming the Palestinians. But Assad, who has recently supported Iran against Iraq in order to tip the scales of the balance of power to his advantage, was not sated. He joined the PLO and betrayed the Christian minority. Today more than 30,000 Syrian troops are entrenched in Lebanon; surface-to-air missiles are aimed at northern Israeli cities; 100,000 Lebanese citizens have died...
...Israel had never meddled in Lebanon until that point. Though Golda Meir made it clear that Israel would not sanction terrorists to its north, Lebanon permitted the PLO to gain a foothold. Joining with indigenous leftist forces, the PLO raided Christian cities until Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad came to the phalangists' aid and began fighting the Palestinians and their Lebanese allies. Assad had observed Hussein's problems and worried about a PLO ascendance...
Besides his hegemonic ambitions and fear of the PLO, there is another reason for Assad's adventurism in Lebanon. As minority ruler, he is under siege from his Moslem opponents domestically. When he ventures into Lebanon to divert attention from his problems at home, an American mediator negotiates a cease-five which allows him to keep his missiles trained on Israel. When Menachem Begin ventures into Lebanon in pursuit of terrorists who oppose his state with every means at their disposal-partly to divert attention from the painful operations in the Sinai necessary for peace-he is accused of ignoring...