Word: assad
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...Damascus Love Thy Neighbor In a joint statement on Oct. 15, one day after Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree formally recognizing Lebanese sovereignty, Syria and Lebanon formally established diplomatic ties for the first time since both nations gained their independence in the 1940s. Political and military tensions between the two countries have increased in recent years amid a string of assassinations of anti-Syrian Lebanese officials. International observers are hopeful that the normalization of relations will help bring stability to the region...
...causes in the Middle East that need backing. More than likely, Iranian leaders were on the phone with counterparts in Damascus all Saturday, telling the Syrians not to lose heart. The Iranian message to Damascus is simple: If Israel and the United States see any weakness in the Assad regime, they will drive a truck through it and bring it down. And, if history is anything to go by, that's a message Damascus will listen...
...extremist Sunni Muslims as heretics, fallen-away Muslims, usurpers who should be put to the sword. In the late '70s and early '80s, the Sunni extremists came close to getting their way. During a February 1982 Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in Hama, Syria's third largest city, Hafez al-Assad felt compelled to flatten it in order to stay in power...
...wasn't until the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon that Syria finally beat the Muslim Brothers. By joining Iran in the so-called "Islamic resistance" against Israel, Assad associated the Alawites with a cause larger than themselves. It was not unlike the '60s and '70s when Syria backed radical Palestinian groups - and fought Israel head-on in 1967 and 1973. The 18-year war in Lebanon (1982-2000) decisively undercut the Muslim Brothers' charge that the Alawites were apostate traitors and dupes of Israel and the United States. Had the Muslim Brothers continued to kill Alawites, they would have been...
...Despite these troubling signs that Syria might be less inclined to drop its traditional friends, French officials say Assad's positioning may have been a feint designed to draw more attention from Western nations. "There are indications that flash of bad-old-day habit was in fact a reminder that Syria doesn't have a lot of partnerships available if the wider international community continues shutting it out," the French official said...