Word: assad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...will make our judgment known when we see the last Syrian soldiers withdrawing from their positions." Then, in a further effort to heal the breach between the two antagonistic countries, King Khalid of Saudi Arabia invited both Jordan's King Hussein and Syria's President Hafez Assad to Riyadh for a detailed discussion of their differences...
...boycott ringleader was Syria, which feared that it would be censured in Amman for backing non-Arab Iran against Arab Iraq. For nearly a decade, Syrian President Hafez Assad has feuded on and off with Iraqi Strongman Saddam Hussein. So great is Assad's anti-Baghdad antagonism that he was willing to risk isolation in the Arab world with his support of Iran. The fact that the summit was in Jordan, Iraq's staunchest Arab ally, also displeased Assad...
...effort to act as the Arabs' honest broker-despite its own pro-Iraq leanings-Saudi Arabia tried to persuade Syria to attend, and very nearly succeeded. Crown Prince Fahd flew to Damascus shortly before the summit, TIME learned, and personally pleaded with Assad. At first the Syrian leader agreed to come, provided the conference was postponed two weeks. But when he declared his intention to condemn Iraq and to say that the war was the result of collusion among Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan and the U.S., Fahd told him to stay home...
...using its muscle to line up its boycott allies. It had plenty of leverage with the P.L.O., which not only has forces on Syrian territory but also depends on Syria to keep the peace in Lebanon, the Palestinians' main base of operations. According to participants in the negotiation, Assad was blunt with P.L.O. Leader Yasser Arafat. "Is it marriage or divorce?" he asked. Unwilling to risk a break with such an important ally, the P.L.O. sent its regrets with "sorrow." Lebanon was also compliant, recognizing that it would be thrown into chaos if Syria ever pulled...
Your article could be the outline of a political soap opera. What is Assad's real motive in his friendship with Gaddafi? Can Saddam Hussein pull enough strings to promote his own desires for power? What is the true relationship between King Hussein and the P.L.O.? Was there any hanky-panky at the last office party between Brezhnev and Assad...