Word: baathist
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...four foes were not enough, Israel may soon have to worry about a reinvigorated fifth. Iraq has no contiguous border with Israel, but its fanatically anti-Israel Baathist government maintains an 18,000-man expeditionary force in Jordan and Syria. The Baathists might have sent more troops but for the fact that the Iraqi army has been preoccupied for nearly nine years with rebellious Kurd tribesmen. The Kurds, who occupy most of the northern quarter of Iraq with an army of 10,000 men, have been demanding autonomy. Last week, convinced that the endless war was futile, Lieut. General Ahmed...
Last week the Iraqis outdid themselves. Sixteen people were executed by firing squad or gallows for plotting against the Baathist junta of President Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr, which seized power in 1968. "All conspirators will be crushed to pulp," cried Al-Bakr. Baghdad radio punctuated its attacks on "reactionaries and deviationists" with a new musical number titled No Mercy Any More. In subsequent days, 21 more alleged plotters were executed, in addition to seven Iraqis accused of helping the CIA plot a coup last year. So far, 98 people have been done away with since the beginning...
Because of their resentment of the conservative Moslem monarchies, the radical Baathist leaders of Iraq and Syria never got to the table. Neither did Egypt's Gamal Abdd Nasser. Pleading a case of flu, Nasser stayed in Cairo and sent a second-echelon delegate. He feared that the hastily organized meeting would accomplish little-despite its billing as the most important political parley in Islam's 1,389-year history...
Even so, only four other countries saw fit to send representatives. Jordan's Hussein was there, and so was Syria's head of state, Noureddine Atassi. Iraq sent only a Deputy Premier because of its quarrel with Syria over the true interpretation of Baathist socialism, but Sudan sent its new ruler, Major General Jaafar Nimeiry. The oil-soaked Kuwaitis, Saudis and Libyans, who already donate $378 million a year to war-damaged Egypt and Jordan, stayed away, lest they be touched for even bigger donations. Sure enough, the leaders at the mini-summit made a blunt demand...
...reportedly so depressed after one leadership quarrel that he shot himself. The two men also appealed to Cairo and Algiers to send mediators to settle the dispute. They arrived last week and apparently had some effect. Both sides agreed to air their argument in an emergency party congress, which Baathist leaders insisted be held "in an atmosphere of complete freedom"-in other words, with no show of military force...