Word: assads
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...Syria, Lebanon, the U.S. and the Soviets, if Moscow wished-that would keep a comprehensive multilateral Geneva conference going until Syria and the Palestinians decided to join. Meanwhile, the Eilts-Lewis cables were relayed to U.S. Ambassador Richard Murphy in Damascus; Murphy was instructed to use them to convince Assad that Sadat did not sell out the Arab side in Jerusalem. Obviously, Washington, shut out of the Sadat-Begin talks, very much wanted to be part of the followup...
Begin was obviously signaling loudest to Syrian President Hafez Assad, one of the Arab leaders most opposed to Sadat's journey. Said the Premier: "There is no justification for the poison that comes from our northern border." While stressing that Israel disagreed with some points that Sadat had raised?the return of East Jerusalem to Arab control, for instance?Begin insisted that Israel and the Arabs should at least talk and negotiate. "Let us continue the dialogue and grasp one another's hands. Israel does not wish to rule...
...speaking to the Knesset, he was also acknowledging Israel's right to consider Jerusalem as its capital (even the U.S. maintains its embassy in Tel Aviv). Attempting to blunt such criticism in advance of his trip, Sadat last week flew to Damascus to confer with Syrian President Hafez Assad, who has been somewhat suspicious of his Arab brother since the second Sinai accord of 1975, through which Egypt regained the Abu Rudeis oilfields...
During a five-hour private meeting, Assad argued with Sadat not to go, but the two could only agree to disagree. "Unfortunately, President Assad does not agree that I should go to Jerusalem," Sadat told newsmen as he left Damascus to return to Cairo, following a chilly send-off from Assad. In a separate interview, Assad said that it was "painful that I could not convince him nor dissuade him from making the trip." Yasser Arafat also deplored the mission on the ground that it threatened Arab unity, and pleaded with Sadat to cancel the trip. The embarrassed Arafat...
...about the Carter plan. There is no easy way to judge the Administration's argument that the most probable alternative to Geneva is more bloodshed. Of course, talk of war is as much a part of the daily Middle East vocabulary as those diplomatic code words. Syrian President Hafez Assad's contribution last week was particularly grim. "Naturally, I don't want to negate the chances of the peace altogether," he said in Damascus. "But I still say if we [Arabs and Israelis] don't go to war again, it will be a miracle...