Word: baathist
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Though they share the same religion, the two countries could hardly be more different. Iraq is an Arab state, governed by the left-wing Baathist regime and aligned with Moscow. Iran is a conservative, Western-oriented monarchy whose people are of predominantly Aryan origin. The Iraqis are armed by the Soviets; the Iranians bought some $2 billion worth of U.S. arms last year...
...revamping of socialism at home is already having rippling effects elsewhere. Sadat's moves, for instance, are making it easier for Syrian President Hafez Assad to convince his Baathist regime to relax restrictions on the private investment that Damascus also needs. More significantly, Sadat is finally reclaiming the Arab leadership that Egyptians had traditionally enjoyed and Nasser once held. Nasser's charisma, however, worked mainly on the masses, many of whom still listen to broadcasts of his old speeches (some of them insist that he is well and living in the Soviet Union and that he will...
With Soviet acquiescence, if not encouragement, Iraq's left-wing Baathist regime has been generating border trouble with both Iran to the east and Kuwait to the south. Skirmishes between Iraqi and Iranian border guards are common. Russia (along with China) has supplied weapons to guerrillas trying to overthrow Sultan Qabus of Oman. If these rebels were successful, they could bottleneck the gulf by sinking a supertanker in the narrow channel that is now negotiated by 100 ships in the Strait of Hormuz each day. The short-range Soviet aim seems to be to keep the U.S. on edge...
...sometimes savage resistance toward local Communism. The Soviets have supplied billions in aid to "revolutionary" Arab governments. They have received lavish expressions of friendship as well as vital military facilities in return. But they have never been able to install a pro-Communist regime in the area. There are Baathist radicals in Syria and Iraq, and Socialists in Algeria, Egypt, Libya and southern Yemen. But Communists in power...
Born in a goat-hair tent to a family of desert nomads, Gaddafi combines the traits of a hell-fire-and-damnation preacher, a willful millionaire and a Western-movie gunslinger. Last November, when Syrian General Hafez Assad toppled his Baathist rivals and took over, Gaddafi jetted into Damascus to inspect the new leader. He demonstrated his approval by leaving a check for $10 million. Like a political jack-in-the-box, Gaddafi has flown, unannounced, to Egypt for spur-of-the-moment meetings with Nasser and to Algeria for discussions with President Houari Boumedienne. When a group of Sudanese...