Word: assad
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Even so, last week's meeting between Assad and Hussein was a diplomatic breakthrough. Relations between Syria and Jordan have been stormy since 1980, when the two countries broke over Jordan's clandestine support of the anti-Assad Muslim Brotherhood. Hostilities continued until last August, when Hussein unexpectedly agreed to pursue a rapprochement. Subsequent talks between Jordanian and Syrian officials produced travel and trade accords, as well as agreements to reject bilateral negotiations with Israel and to back a U.N.-sponsored international peace conference...
...Hussein suddenly opened his arms to Assad remains a matter of speculation. Some analysts suggest that Hussein, perceiving only shaky support from the U.S. and moderate Arab regimes for his peace initiative, felt vulnerable standing alone on the high ground of Middle East politics. "The King is buying himself a little insurance," explained one U.S. State Department official. Others believe that Hussein plans to use his improved relations with Assad to put pressure on Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose refusal to endorse U.N. resolutions stating Israel's right to exist has stalled the King's peace...
...unlikely to produce a lasting cease-fire. While the agreement seeks to redress the balance of power between Muslims and Maronite Christians, the traditionally dominant Maronites are reluctant to give up their privileges. Indeed, just days after the truce went into effect gunmen opened fire on the car of Assad Shaftari, a key Maronite participant in the Syrian-sponsored peace talks. Shaftari narrowly escaped. His supporters have accused Christians who back President Amin Gemayel of staging the attack. Gemayel, who has yet to endorse the treaty, flew to Damascus at week's end to discuss the pact with Assad...
...warlords in a stalemate for power. Late last month when the chiefs of the three most powerful militias signed a Syrian-sponsored peace agreement, it seemed that Lebanon was taking a small step toward ending the carnage that has already cost more than 100,000 lives. Syrian President Hafez Assad warned that he would not allow the peace pact to fail. But even Assad could not have foreseen the vicious warfare that erupted last week, pitting Christian against Christian and spelling an almost certain return to factional...
...legislative branches. President Amin Gemayel at first praised the plan, but he quickly changed his mind when fellow Christian leaders voiced concern that the pact would end traditional Christian dominance of Lebanese political life. Last Monday, as Gemayel prepared to return to Damascus to share his misgivings with Assad, fighting broke out in Christian-dominated East Beirut between the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia commanded by Elias Hobeika, 29, who had signed the Damascus pact, and the fighting arm of the Phalange Party, which is loyal to President Gemayel...