Word: assad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Bill Clinton believes that stalemate was broken last week in Geneva after he met for more than five hours with Syrian President Hafez Assad. Speaking to the press afterward, Assad declared, "We want a genuine peace which secures the interests of all sides and renders to all their rights. If the leaders of Israel have sufficient courage to respond to this kind of peace, the new era of normal, peaceful relations among all shall dawn." As he flew home, Clinton insisted that Assad's statement was a significant step forward. "I think he has reached a conclusion that...
...words offered a hint of progress as Israel and Syria go back to the bargaining table in Washington this week, where more than two years of on- again, off-again negotiations have made little headway. And the language bought Assad a thaw in his relations with the U.S., which has been his No. 1 priority ever since the Soviet Union imploded and he could no longer count on Moscow to be his primary patron. To salvage his flattened economy, Assad needs aid and trade from the West. In a sense, said a U.S. official, "he's less interested in peace...
Israelis heard Assad say a word they've been waiting to hear -- normal -- then refuse to define it. They fear they will end up giving away strategically crucial territory in return for little more than a cold cessation of hostilities. Officials read heavy meaning into Syria's initial refusal to admit Israeli journalists to the Geneva press conference. Even after Clinton sent two emissaries to Jerusalem to explain his belief that Assad's "normal" actually meant the open borders, tourism, free trade and diplomatic relations Israel seeks, Rabin was unconvinced. "The Americans were stretching things to try to convince themselves...
...Rabin was also deeply concerned that Assad had offered no new assurances about security arrangements if Israel does withdraw from the Golan Heights. Rising in a steep escarpment to a height of 2,970 ft. on the Syrian-Israeli border, the Golan commands all the low ground that constitutes northern Israel. Syria repeatedly shelled Israeli kibbutzim from the Heights in the 1960s. Not a shot has been fired there since Henry Kissinger brokered a troop- separation accord in 1974, but poised on both sides are thousands of tanks, a bristling reminder of the state of war that has existed between...
Despite his unease with Assad's vague linguistics, a realistic Rabin has put Israelis on notice that an agreement on the Golan is coming nearer -- and they're not sure they like it. The 13,000 settlers who live on the Heights, supported by many other Israelis, have mounted noisy protests denouncing Rabin's plans to give back territory. In the hours after the Geneva meeting, Rabin felt he needed to defuse a fresh outcry and abruptly called for a referendum on the future of the Golan. Whether or not a plebiscite would ever be accepted by Syrians -- or Israelis...