Word: assad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Saturnine by disposition, Syrian President Hafez Assad is not known for saying anything nice about anyone. So it astonished all manner of Middle East pundits last week when he showered praise on the leader of his No. 1 enemy, Israel. Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak, Assad told an Arabic newspaper, is a "strong and honest man" who had a "real desire for peace." Barak blew a few kisses of his own, crediting Assad with creating a "strong, independent, self-confident" country...
...Assad has long wanted to reclaim the Golan Heights, the strategic plateau captured by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967, the loss of which he regards as a personal and national indignity. Outpowered militarily, Assad knows negotiations are his best option. The Syrian leader, 68, suffers multiple ailments, which are thought to include diabetes and heart disease. He is eager to prepare the succession of his son Bashar, 34, a mild-mannered, British-trained ophthalmologist who emerged as heir apparent only after his elder brother Basil died in a 1994 car crash. "Assad has more a sense...
This was not the first such excursion by Jackson--he successfully freed POWs held by Saddam Hussein before the Gulf War, and did the same when President Assad of Syria held U.S. pilots hostage during Ronald Reagan's presidency...
Tyrants like Hafez Assad, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein and Milosevic didn't have to check with anybody before they cut a deal with Jackson. They just did it, providing him with instant gratification and themselves with a propaganda bonanza that typically includes the reverend's fervently imploring the U.S. President to give them a call. If Jackson were to bad-mouth the butcher with whom he was just holding hands and praying, the next one just might turn him away...
...Jackson appealed to Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad to release a Navy pilot that had been shot down over Lebanon. A few months later he went to Cuba to meet with Fidel Castro and arrange for the liberation of prison inmates. In the months preceding the Gulf War he met with Saddam Hussein to negotiate the release of foreigners being held there. In all these cases, his success in aiding the individuals in need must be appreciated. But at what cost are such victories...