Word: assads
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Syria's Assad Under Pressure
...mystery of the Middle East last week involved a country whose politics are murky even at the best of times. Is Syria's President Hafez Assad in serious trouble because of Lebanon? Israeli intelligence officials, no friends of Assad obviously, predicted that Syria "is on the eve of a coup." Syrian tank units, the Israelis said, had been pulled back to Damascus to protect the President. Palestinians in Beirut, who are also hostile to Assad's regime, insisted that Syrian army officers had been jailed for protesting their government's orders...
...intransigence of the Christian rightists had also caused irritation in Damascus. Observed Syrian Information Minister Ahmad Iskander: "If President Assad and Syria did not have the patience of Job, we would have stopped [peacekeeping] efforts long ago." However frustrating the task, Assad is not expected to abandon his efforts in Lebanon. For one thing, he is concerned that more radical Arabs, such as the Iraqis and the Libyans, may make further inroads in a country that Syria would like to keep strictly within its own sphere of influence. An unstable or radical Arab regime in Lebanon would not only increase...
...Assad's most likely course would seem to be a continuation of the cautious moves he has made throughout the crisis-a mix of political pressure and persuasion, backed by a limited troop presence inside Lebanon. Though White House Press Secretary Ron Nessen last week praised Syria for "playing a constructive role" in Lebanon, Damascus was emphatic in putting down suggestions that Assad had received from Washington a "green light" for greater military intervention. As one Syrian official recently put it, "We only want to be the gendarme...
...Damascus, President Hafez Assad, in explanation of the Syrian moves, told a Baathist meeting that his troops had taken "a firm stand to oppose any party that insists on continuing the war." His remarks were aimed at leftist Moslem Leader Kamal Jumblatt, who had accused Syria of invading Lebanon and sent demonstrators into the streets of Tyre and Saida with banners that read: SAVE THE SYRIAN ARMY FOR THE CONFRONTATION WITH ISRAEL...