Word: assad
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...diplomats in Damascus believe that the Syrians are also trying to jolt the Palestine Liberation Organization into adhering more closely to the Damascus line. After P.L.O. Chairman Yasser Arafat visited Iraq and Saudi Arabia recently without clearing his business with Syria, he was summoned to Damascus by President Hafez Assad, who warned the Palestinian leader not to get "too far out in front" of Syrian policies...
...Assad and his colleagues argue that Arabs, despite their concern over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, must remember that the Israelis are their real enemies. Says Information Minister Ahmad Iskandar Ahmad: "Our battle is here, not in Kabul. We have no desire to be a toy in the American game of trying to use the Islamic resurgence against the Soviet Union...
...truth, however, is that Syria is being pushed farther into the Soviet camp than President Assad thinks prudent. Though Syria seems eager to turn toward the West to develop its trade and agriculture, Assad is restrained by his adamant opposition to the Camp David accords and by his dependence on Soviet military supplies. For a variety of reasons, Syria has rarely been so isolated within the Arab world as it is today. Thus another reason for Assad's troop decision was to remind other Arabs and the world at large that Damascus still holds the match to Lebanon, potentially...
Moscow was also making its presence felt in the area. Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko flew to Damascus to shore up relations with Syrian President Hafez Assad, who could use the Kremlin's help to cope with his troubles. Assad's nine-year-old regime, dominated by the minority Alawite sect, has been challenged for its repression and corruption by rightist Muslims; relations with neighboring Iraq have deteriorated, and Syria was the only major Arab state that stayed away from the Islamabad summit...