Word: assad
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Bill Clinton believes that stalemate was broken last week in Geneva after he met for more than five hours with Syrian President Hafez Assad. Speaking to the press afterward, Assad declared, "We want a genuine peace which secures the interests of all sides and renders to all their rights. If the leaders of Israel have sufficient courage to respond to this kind of peace, the new era of normal, peaceful relations among all shall dawn." As he flew home, Clinton insisted that Assad's statement was a significant step forward. "I think he has reached a conclusion that...
...words offered a hint of progress as Israel and Syria go back to the bargaining table in Washington this week, where more than two years of on- again, off-again negotiations have made little headway. And the language bought Assad a thaw in his relations with the U.S., which has been his No. 1 priority ever since the Soviet Union imploded and he could no longer count on Moscow to be his primary patron. To salvage his flattened economy, Assad needs aid and trade from the West. In a sense, said a U.S. official, "he's less interested in peace...
...Israel's offer. Mubarak, facing his own troubles with Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, is known to fear a surge in Palestinian support for the extremist Hamas movement in the occupied territories if the P.L.O. fails to reach agreement with Israel. President Clinton's mid-January summit with Syrian President Hafez Assad in Geneva is sure to bring renewed pressure on Arafat as well. Optimists assume that, in the end, the Israelis and the P.L.O. will agree on a formula that allows Palestinian self-rule to proceed, if only because the alternative -- increased violence -- is unacceptable...
There was better news on another front in the Middle East: Damascus and Jerusalem may resume peace talks as early as January. Syria broke off the U.S.-sponsored negotiations in September. In signs of conciliation, President Hafez Assad last week announced that Syria would help investigate the fates of seven Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon since the 1980s and also said Syrian Jews would be issued exit visas by the end of December. Assad will meet President Clinton in Geneva in mid-January...
Granted a summit with Clinton, Assad returns to peace talks...