Word: assad
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...signed. And Syria remained the most stubborn holdout until last week, when Damascus and Cairo announced that the two countries would resume relations after a twelve-year hiatus. The restored ties will be celebrated sometime in January at a meeting between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Hafez Assad. One possibly helpful result of their detente: a moderation in Syrian opposition to current Middle East peace initiatives...
Syria thus becomes the next to last of the 17 Arab countries to welcome Egypt back into the fold. In recent months, Assad has felt increasingly isolated, especially after the Soviet Union served notice that it would no longer support his aim of strategic parity with Israel. Now only Libya lacks diplomatic relations with Egypt, but even Tripoli is making an attempt to smooth its dealings with Cairo: last October Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi paid his first visit to Egypt in 16 years to meet with Mubarak. By all accounts the session was businesslike but amicable...
Lebanon's turf war is hopelessly entangled in other conflicts. Aoun and Assad have developed a deep personal animosity. Aoun regards Assad as the head of an occupational force, which must be driven out. Assad, who considers Lebanon part of Greater Syria, has been embarrassed that in the past six months Aoun's smaller forces have held the Muslims at bay. "Assad doesn't want to annihilate the Christians," says retired Israeli Brigadier General Aharon Levran. "He just wants Aoun's head...
Western leaders are trying to halt the slaughter through international pressure on Assad. The Syrian President does not wish to offend the West when his country sorely needs economic help. Nor can Assad calculate Israel's or Iraq's response to an assault by his troops that would amount to Syrian control of Lebanon...
...both Assad and Aoun seem bent on the same deadly gambit: Damascus hopes the violence will turn Christians against Aoun; the Maronite leader hopes it will bring intervention from the West against Syria. Meantime, it is the people of Lebanon who continue to suffer, particularly those -- Muslim and Christian alike -- who live in Beirut, where the shells have killed almost 800 and wounded over 2,000 since March. The fortunate have fled, paring the city's population from 1.5 million to just 150,000. Those who remain huddle by night in airless underground shelters, listening to the sounds of destruction...