Word: assads
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...western quarters as well. The continuing peace negotiations among Lebanon's warring factions were hampered by bickering over some of the decisions made at the all-Lebanon conference in Geneva three weeks before. Lebanese President Amin Gemayel had planned to fly to Damascus to see Syrian President Hafez Assad, who is clearly the strongest factor in the continued fighting in Lebanon. But that trip had to be delayed when Assad underwent an appendectomy. In the meantime, Israeli and later French warplanes bombed and strafed positions in eastern Lebanon held by pro-Iranian Shi'ite Muslims believed...
...P.L.O.'s ranks. The rebels were angry with Arafat for having left Beirut and for taking what they regarded as too moderate a line on future negotiations with Israel. They resented his talks with King Hussein of Jordan a short time earlier and his growing quarrel with Assad...
...killing 25. Arafat remains the symbol of the Palestinian cause, and he still has the support of a clear majority in the Palestine National Council, the P.L.O.'s de facto parliament. But because of his indecisiveness, excessive caution and, most important, the heavy hand of Syria's Assad, Arafat has lost control of his fighting force...
...Assad had ruthlessly undercut Arafat twice before. In 1970, when Assad was Defense Minister, he prevented the Syrian air force from coming to the aid of Arafat's commandos in Jordan. During the 1975-76 civil war in Lebanon, Assad ordered his army to help Christian militiamen obliterate the Palestinian refugee camp of Tel Zaatar in Beirut, killing 3,000 Palestinians. When Assad failed to have Arafat deposed at a P.L.O. central committee meeting in August (Arafat actually received a nearly unanimous vote of confidence), Assad decided to resort to force...
...result, few people were rushing to write Arafat off. Said a Western analyst in Beirut: "Assad has the guns, but Arafat has the hearts and minds of the Palestinians." That is his weapon, and it may yet, in some unforeseen way, rescue him once again. -By Marguerite Johnson. Reported by David Halevy/Jerusalem and William Stewart/ Beirut, with other bureaus