Word: assads
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...Damascus, Syrian President Hafez Assad jailed perhaps 200 members of his own Baath Party amid dissident rumbles-including rumors of coup-against the longest-lasting government (4½ years) Syria has had since gaining independence...
With this in mind, Assad had suspected party dissidents rounded up on the eve of last week's Sixth National Baath Party Congress. The tactic worked very well. Assad, already President of the Republic and Commander in Chief of the armed forces, was re-elected to the 21-man National Command of the Baath Party and to its secretary-generalship. That should give him a relatively free hand to pursue his policies-if only he can keep harmony within his own family. His brother, Lieut. Colonel Rifaat Assad, 34, who was elected for the first time to the National...
Observers describe Assad's policies with the vague term "flexibility." Internally, he has relaxed currency controls and travel restrictions and seeks to attract Western investment. Externally, he appears almost deliberately to be intimidating Iraq, perhaps as a means of discouraging Baghdad from any idea of moving against his territory...
...same time, Assad's government apparently intends to improve still further its relations with the U.S. "Assad wants to play the American card," explains a Syrian official. "We need to become friends with the friends of our enemy. This will hurt our enemy." Assad is also cozying up to the enemies of his enemy. He has proposed a joint Syrian-Palestinian command and made himself the foremost champion of the fedayeen, moves that give him a strong bargaining hand in any negotiations about a peace settlement...
...surface missile and the F-15 fighter-the world's most advanced combat aircraft -so as to pressure Israel to make peace and to limit Jerusalem's pre-emptive strike possibilities. Premier Yitzhak Rabin's government argues that such pressure will only encourage Arabs like Assad. Thus there was particular interest last week in the first public showing of the Kfir (Lion Cub), a home-built fighter that symbolizes Israel's determination to protect itself...