Word: assads
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WELCOME TO THE BIG BOSS, read a new sign in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley along the Beirut-Damascus highway. In case any traveler did not recognize the big boss, the sign was surrounded by photographs of Syrian President Hafez Assad. Last week the highway was completely open for the first time in nine months-and free of marauding gangs that robbed and killed travelers-as Assad's troops moved into Beirut to unite and pacify the Lebanese capital...
...issue: Israel's return of occupied territory in exchange for Arab recognition. "For God's sake," he said, "don't get lost on side issues like the [Arab] boycott. Solve the big issue and you solve the boycott." Sadat has ended a feud with President Hafez Assad over Syria's intervention in Lebanon, but Egypt's relations with neighboring Libya are still hectic. "I consider Muammar Gaddafi my son," said Sadat, "but how can I believe anything he says when he never means anything he says...
...Saudi Arabia, have contributed troops to the Lebanese peace-keeping force. But at summit meetings in Riyadh and Cairo (TIME, Nov. 8), an understanding was reached that the largest contingent of the "Arab Security Force" would be the Syrian brigades sent into Lebanon earlier this year by President Hafez Assad. Some Arab leaders had mixed feelings about so large a Syrian force in Lebanon; they were alarmed by the dominant Syrian presence, but at the same time relieved that any fighting to be done would be by the Syrians. Moving cautiously to avoid confrontations, the Syrian brigades last week probed...
...main problem in Cairo was that too many of the Arab states distrust each other's intentions in Lebanon. Specifically, many of the leaders were unhappy about the 21,000-man Syrian force that President Hafez Assad had dispatched to Lebanon; initially sent to impose an armistice between the warring factions, the Syrians later sided with the rightist Christians in battles against the Moslem leftists and their Palestinian allies. In Riyadh, the Arab leaders agreed that some or all of the Syrian troops would be part of the new peace-keeping force, which is to be bankrolled largely...
...however, the clout of the leading moderates won out-sort of. Egypt, which is the overwhelming political power in the region, Syria, which currently has the military strength, and Saudi Arabia, which has the money, hung together to insist on ratification of the Riyadh agreement. Syria's President Assad, who until the Riyadh meeting had been at odds with Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, spoke glowingly of "this good land of Egypt" and praised "my brother Sadat." Lebanese Delegate Najib Dahdah attacked Hammadi for interfering in the internal affairs of his country-ignoring the fact that Syria has interfered considerably...