Word: assad
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...Mandela's time in office has been spent in the acquisition of new friends of the Qaddafi-esque ilk. Perhaps even more disquieting than the largely symbolic fraternity between Qaddafi and Mandela, were last year's allegations that Mandela intended to sell chemical weapons to Syrian dictator Hafiz al-Assad. This episode was followed by a state visit by Vice President Al Gore Jr. '69 to South Africa during which Gore is reported not to have even broached the subject of the arms deal in his conversations with the South African president...
...fact that the ANC resorted to terrorism against South African civilians in the latter years of the struggle to end Apartheid undoubtedly caused the group to simplisticly infer connections with the causes of Arafat, Qaddafi and more recently, Assad. The ANC's associations with the pariahs of the world delegitimized an otherwise legitimate cause and only made it more difficult for the ANC's non-Marxist, non-terrorist sympathizers to support them. Pretoria's continued pursuit of these relationships in the face of Western objections raises important foreign policy considerations for Washington...
None of these points were lost on the Palestinian extremists who claimed responsibility for the explosions. "Our first goal was to bring down Arafat's administration," says "Abu Assad," a senior figure in the military wing of Hamas. According to him, the group was trying to prevent the anticipated full resumption of joint antiterror measures between the Israelis and the Palestinians. "This cooperation," notes Abu Assad, "is done at our expense." Then, in a boast that might be only bravado, the Hamas activist claimed, "We were about to assassinate Dennis Ross" on one of his previous peace shuttles. U.S. officials...
...dead, the group is little more than a memory of a time when terrorist hijackings were common. Since little happens in Syrian-controlled Lebanon without the approval of Damascus, chances are the arrests were carried out with Syria's consent -- perhaps as a goodwill token from President Hafez Assad. Among the five Japanese and two Lebanese suspects arrested is Kozo Okamoto, who was sentenced to life in prison after the Lod bombing, but later released in a prisoner exchange between Israelis and Palestinians...
WASHINGTON, D.C.: A year after an unprecedented wave of Hamas terrorist bombings brought a bloody end to Israel?s peace talks with Syria, Benjamin Netanyahu says he's ready to resume talks with Syrian President Hafez Assad. Although Netanyahu said he would not set preconditions for talks, preconditions for peace appear still on the table. According to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, Netanyahu told both President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright in meetings Thursday that "you must make it clear to Assad that he must think of other options -- the option of a total withdrawal from the Golan...