Word: assad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Israel's offer. Mubarak, facing his own troubles with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, is known to fear a surge in Palestinian support for the extremist Hamas movement in the occupied territories if the P.L.O. fails to reach agreement with Israel. President Clinton's mid-January summit with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Geneva is sure to bring renewed pressure on Arafat as well. Optimists assume that, in the end, the Israelis and the P.L.O. will agree on a formula that allows Palestinian self-rule to proceed, if only because the alternative -- increased violence -- is unacceptable...
...break the deadlock, Christopher offered a diplomatic plum to Syrian President Hafez Assad: a meeting with Clinton in Geneva. The mid-January summit, which is expected to bring the Syrians back to Washington's bargaining tables by February, will enable Assad to project the statesmanlike image he craves. And it will also give him a chance to explain to Clinton his reservation about the Arafat-Rabin accord...
Christopher's announcement came in response to a rare display of Syrian goodwill toward Israel. Assad promised to assist investigations into the disappearance of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon during the 1980s, and offered exit permits to 1,200 Syrian Jews by the end of this month. The gestures did not go unnoticed. The very next day, the Administration said it would temporarily relax sanctions against Syria -- imposed for its alleged support of international terrorism -- to allow the transfer of several American-made aircraft from Kuwait...
There was better news on another front in the Middle East: Damascus and Jerusalem may resume peace talks as early as January. Syria broke off the U.S.-sponsored negotiations in September. In signs of conciliation, President Hafez Assad last week announced that Syria would help investigate the fates of seven Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon since the 1980s and also said Syrian Jews would be issued exit visas by the end of December. Assad will meet President Clinton in Geneva in mid-January...
Granted a summit with Clinton, Assad returns to peace talks...