Word: assads
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...head-table occupant who attracted the most attention at a state banquet in Damascus last week was neither the guest of honor, French President François Mitterrand, nor the host, Syrian President Hafez Assad. Instead, it was Assad's younger brother Rifaat, 47, one of Syria's three Vice Presidents, making his first appearance after returning from a mysterious six-month exile in Switzerland and France. Rifaat's sudden re-emergence seemed to indicate that he might soon resume his public duties, which include overseeing Syria's state security apparatus, and that he might attain...
Hussein was alluding to the stubborn efforts by Syrian President Hafez Assad to block the session. Though Assad failed, he ordered several Syrian-based factions of the P.L.O. to boycott the proceedings. The meeting thus deepened divisions within the troubled organization, with both pro-Arafat and anti-Arafat sides claiming the cause of a Palestinian homeland as their own. Whether or not the rift hardens into a permanent split, the internecine conflict promises to weaken further the organization that has come to represent the hopes of 4 million Palestinians...
...only 249 members of the 374-seat council were needed for a quorum. To cobble the necessary numbers, Arafat aides persuaded the deputy speaker to appoint several dozen loyalists temporarily to vacant seats. On the second day the delegates voted to dismiss Khaled Fahoum, the council speaker and an Assad ally, and replace him with Sheik Abdul Hamid al Sa'eh of Jordan...
Dressed in a khaki army jacket and black-and-white kaffiyeh, Arafat looked incongruous in the sea of dark business suits. Peppering his talk with quotes from the Koran, Arafat called for more terrorist operations against Israel. Though he did not mention the P.L.O. dissidents or Assad by name, Arafat obliquely admitted his own fallibility by referring to "some errors" in the Palestinian movement. Nonetheless, he asked for a vote of confidence. "I will accept any verdict or judgment," he declared...
...followers broke away in May 1983, it became clear that the dispute was no longer just about policies; it was also about Arafat. The rebels were led by Abu Mousa, a former commander in the Bekaa Valley, who was upset over the promotion of two comrades. Syria's Assad, eager to seize control of the Palestinian movement, fanned the revolt by giving Abu Mousa's troops financial aid and a safe haven in eastern Lebanon. "The Syrians want Arafat's head," recently explained Abu Iyad, the P.L.O.'s chief political strategist. "They want to remove...