Word: assads
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...would choose the sword so soon after the end of Iraq's eight-year conflict with Iran. In fact, Saddam's bellicosity ("O God almighty, be witness that we have warned them") was barely noted. The big news from the Middle East was the possibility that Syria's Hafez Assad might finally be serious about negotiating with Israel's Yitzhak Shamir...
Baker arrived in Israel again last week after a visit to Syria, where he picked up President Hafez Assad's formal acceptance of Washington's proposal for a conference. Jordan and Lebanon had also quickly fallen into line. Egypt was on board from the start, and Saudi Arabia and the gulf states had promised to join talks on regional problems such as water supplies and arms control...
...INSIDE ASSAD'S MIND...
Syria's President was the linchpin for the peace process and the toughest Arab leader for Washington to persuade. He is also, says William Quandt of the Brookings Institution, "a great realist." When the cold war ended and the Soviet Union fell into disarray, Assad could no longer count on modern weapons and economic support from Moscow, and his dreams of achieving strategic parity with Israel faded...
...During the gulf war, Assad moved closer to Washington and the moderate Arabs by joining the alliance against Iraq. For his efforts, he received major subsidies from Saudi Arabia -- at least $2.5 billion so far -- and a nod of acceptance from the U.S. as he completed his domination of Lebanon and disarmed the rival militias. Whatever threat Lebanon's civil war might have posed to Syrian hegemony is now gone...