Word: baath
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Assad's socialist Baath regime maintains a no-compromise position toward Israel, which captured chunks of the Golan Heights in 1967 and extended its gains in the October war. But in secret meetings in Damascus last week, hardliners and moderates in the Baath National Command engaged in fierce debates over how Syria should act. The hardliners, headed by Foreign Minister Abdel Halim Khaddam, insisted that the cease-fire agreement should be Syria's only concession until Israel withdraws from all occupied territory. The moderates, led by Premier Mahmoud Ayoubi, reportedly were agreeable to a phased Israeli withdrawal...
After graduating from the Syrian military academy, Tlas began his career as an army regular, while at the same time becoming a prominent figure in the Baath Party. In the split between military and civilian factions that developed in the Syrian leadership, Tlas sided with the army, throwing his weight behind President Hafez Assad in the latter's 1970 coup. Since then he and Assad have concentrated their attention on improving the quality of Syria's armed forces, with Tlas traveling to Moscow, Peking and, most recently, Hanoi in quest of military equipment and advice...
...arrangement leaves Iraq looking for customers for 60% of the oil it used to sell to the West. As the price for its derring-do in taking over I.P.C., Baghdad faces a severe cutback in its ambitious plans for agricultural and industrial development. The Baath regime has already ordered an austerity program to offset the drop in oil revenues. Foreign travel has been banned except for government officials, students or ailing citizens allowed to go abroad for treatment...
...confrontation, the regime would likely prevail. In the four years since it seized absolute power, the Baath Party has ruthlessly consolidated its rule. One method was the execution of more than 120 potential opponents, some of whom were strung up in Baghdad's Tahrir Square in grisly public hangings. Other enemies of the regime languish in a Baghdad prison that Iraqis ironically refer to as the "Palace of the End." President Ahmed Hassan Bakr, 57, the cautious army general who was installed to arbitrate between feuding Baath factions, has become a figurehead as Vice President Takriti concentrated power...
...Baath Party's rule has reduced the legendary thousand-and-one nights capital of Haroun-al-Rashid to "a joyless city where laughter is alien and diplomats politely suspend dinner conversations when a waiter hovers within earshot," reported TIME Correspondent Gavin Scott after a visit last week. The city (pop. 2,100,000) is a dusty, sunbaked mélange of blue-domed mosques, dun-colored buildings and massive office complexes housing a growing government bureaucracy. Traffic jams are frequent as British-built double-decker buses, government Chevrolets and even donkeys all maneuver for the five bridges that span...