Word: assad
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Israelis aren't negotiating from a position of strength. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is deeply unpopular, buffeted by scandals and just barely clinging to power. This leaves him in no position to make important concessions to Syria's Bashar Assad. Nor does it help that the majority of Israelis oppose returning the Golan Heights, and few regard Assad as trustworthy...
...hereditary chieftain of Lebanon's Druze Muslim minority, Jumblatt earned the nickname 'the weather vane" for being able to steer his followers through the ever changing winds of Middle East politics. A former princely vassal to the Syrian Assad regime, he switched his loyalties to the Bush administration after the invasion of Iraq, when it briefly seemed like American military power would transform the region. Yet, despite the fact that Hizballah is perhaps the world's most fearsome guerrilla organization, somehow Jumblatt misjudged the ease with which Hizballah could pull Lebanon back into the Syrian and Iranian orbit. "I must...
...might start a new war in the Middle East if they were publicly fingered after the attack. In other words, it was one thing for Israel to send bombers into Syrian airspace and obliterate a massively expensive nuclear reactor that had been under construction for years. Syrian President Basahr Assad could apparently accept that. But talking about it in public? Now that was really going to hack the Syrians off - so much so they might start a war against Israel that they would almost surely lose...
...inquiry into Hariri's killing could be reduced in scope in exchange for greater security and political cooperation from Damascus in key areas of U.S. concern. Specter said he had been told by King Abdullah of Jordan that "the item that is most on the mind of President Bashar Assad is the action of the international tribunal which could lead to his indictment." But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quickly slapped down Specter's proposal: "I don't think that it would be appropriate to suggest that we might be willing to limit the scope of this tribunal...
...INTERVIEW CONDUCTED AND EDITED BY BITA ASSAD...