Word: assad
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...firing from both sides went on into the weekend, as the diplomats labored to work out a halt. Christopher headed for Damascus on Saturday to talk with Hafez Assad, considered the linchpin to any solution: if he wants to, U.S. and Israeli officials believe, Assad can persuade Hizballah to stop shooting. But why should Assad play ball? His main objective is to regain possession of the Golan Heights, the portion of southwestern Syria that Israel captured in 1967. But exactly how he intends to get it back is unclear. "The Katyushas are a means of putting pressure on Israel," says...
Washington and Jerusalem both wonder whether Assad is really ready to make a serious deal. He agreed to a proposal for direct negotiations with Israel last year, but Peres suspended them in February after a wave of Palestinian suicide bombings made peace talks a political liability. Israelis and Syrians alike assumed the talks would begin again after the May 29 election, but the mess in Lebanon has raised doubts on all sides. Is Assad really interested in a peace agreement? If so, shouldn't he being keeping Lebanon quiet to avoid causing problems for Peres, who is more interested...
...necessarily. Western and Arab observers agree that it is not certain how well Assad controls Hizballah, even though it operates on his turf in Lebanon. The Shi'ite guerrilla force was founded in the early 1980s by radical Iranians. Assad, a secular politician who crushed his homegrown fundamentalists, did not publicly embrace Hizballah; he entrusted relations to his intelligence chiefs. The group has grown less extreme in recent years, sending delegates to the Lebanese parliament, but Hizballah is still closely tied to Tehran and remains as determined as ever to fight Israel. Yet it also seems to pay attention...
JERUSALEM: Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres announced a cease-fire in Israeli's deadly conflict with Hizballah. The announcement comes after Christopher conducted an intense week of diplomatic shuttle missions with Peres, Syrian President Hafez Assad and Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Christopher said that the today's agreement goes beyond the 1993 verbal agreement between Hizballah and Israel not to shell civilians on either side of the Lebanese-Israeli border. Under the deal, Hizballah will halt attacks into northern Israel, while Israel will not target civilian areas in Lebanon. A sticking point...
DAMASCUS, Syria: Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with Syrian President Hafez Assad Wednesday for a marathon 4 1/2 hour session of talks aimed at reaching a cease-fire between Israel and Hizballah guerrillas in Lebanon. Despite canceling a Tuesday meeting with Christopher, Assad insists he was not snubbing the U.S. envoy. U.S. officials speculated that Assad, who has battled health problems for more than a decade, may have been sick. As soon as Christopher's meeting with Assad ended, the secretary traveled in a heavily guarded motorcade to Chtaura, in the heart of Lebanon's Bekaa valley, to meet...