Word: assad
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...people of the region can no more be served by the U.S. and its allies, which have sponsored such butchers as Syria's Assad, Pakistan's Zia and the Shah of Iran, than by Saddam Hussein, himself a product of Western interference...
...Assad's allies profess not to be worried. "It's what the Syrians do, not what they say, that counts," says a Western diplomat. That point was emphasized earlier this month, when the first of 300 Syrian tanks and other armored vehicles arrived at the Saudi port of Yanbu. Assad had agreed to the shipment in September but claimed that transportation problems had delayed the deployment. Though Western diplomats initially dismissed that excuse, they now believe Assad and are confident that Damascus will honor its original commitment to send its entire 9th Armored Division, totaling...
Meanwhile, the Syrians are exasperated by the aid Washington has promised Israel. For the first time the U.S. is to supply Jerusalem with Patriot missile systems, which will greatly strengthen Israel's antiaircraft defenses. Such unqualified U.S. support for Jerusalem makes Assad's alignment with Washington all the harder to sell at home. But at least one diplomat in Damascus believes Syrian authorities may be inflating their assessments of the domestic opposition to convince Washington of the need to downplay relations with Israel. Damascus has asserted that if Jerusalem gets involved in any conflagration in the region, it will quickly...
...will be toppled," says a government official. "If there is peace, Saddam will be in trouble internally because the Iraqis will demand to know why he pushed them into Kuwait just to give it up. Either way, he will not come out of this as strong as he was." Assad may well prefer the first outcome, especially if his soldiers are not called upon to do any fighting. "If there is war and we do not approve it beforehand," says an official, "we will not be responsible for the results." Being happy with the results is another matter...
...while supporting Bush in principle in private, wanted to be sure the Arab nations were on board. "Everybody takes comfort from everybody else," explained a White House aide. Bush laid on an extra stop in Geneva at the end of his trip to talk to Syria's President Hafez Assad, in part to try to ease Gorbachev's doubts...