Word: assads
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Cease-Fire. In many ways, however, Syrian President Hafez Assad's decision to force a solution in Lebanon gave the conflict a potentially more dangerous dimension than it had had during the 14 months of fighting between Lebanese leftists, who are allied with the Palestinians, and Christian rightists. The Syrian incursion openly brought several Arab regimes into an arena in which they had all along been playing covert and opposing roles. There was thus the danger that Lebanon would remain a theater of quarrels between the moderate and radical Arab states now directly intervening in the country. The rightist...
Daring Move. The Syrian attacks last week were intended to check the mainly Moslem leftist forces and their radical Palestinian allies, who have been battling Lebanon's mainly Christian rightists. Syrian President Hafez Assad has been seeking a peace that would enable Christian and Moslem Lebanese to continue sharing political power; this would make it unlikely that a radical state would emerge on Syria's western frontier. This led Assad, earlier in the year, to send several thousand Syrian-led Saiqa fedayeen into Lebanon to bolster the Christian minority. Last week's action was a more daring...
...streets and closed the few shops that had not already been shuttered by the incessant street fighting. He also requested that other Arab states "interfere" in order to end the Syrian intervention. This was seconded by the Palestine Liberation Organization, which also managed to accuse Washington of being behind Assad's move...
Egypt too denounced Assad, thus further chilling the already frigid relations between Cairo and Damascus. In a letter to the Arab League, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy accused Syria of preparing "bloody butcheries that are in reality a war of genocide." Fahmy, like Jumblatt and the P.L.O., called for joint action by other Arab states to get Syrian troops out of Lebanon. In Cairo, Arab students protesting the intervention occupied the Syrian embassy for three hours; in Moscow, Arabs demonstrated in front of the Syrian mission...
...Assad sent his forces into Lebanon across two fronts last week. A relatively small group drove into the northeastern corner of Lebanon and encountered little resistance. The Syrians' primary objective in this area was easily accomplished: the lifting of the five-day leftist blockades of the Christian towns of Qubayat and Andqit...