Word: bashar
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Vulnerable Borders In "Syria Gets The Cold Shoulder" [Sept. 26], Time reported that most world leaders were unwilling to meet with Syrian President Bashar Assad at the U.N. World Summit and that President Bush blames Syria for not doing enough to stop terrorists from entering Iraq. Does no one in the Bush Administration find it ironic that it is criticizing a developing country for its inability to guard its border with Iraq while the U.S. has been unable to secure its own border with Mexico? Why should Syria, which opposed the war, put all its efforts toward securing a border...
Syrian President Bashar Assad had planned to attend the 2005 World Summit at the U.N. last week as part of a novel policy, in the words of a Syrian diplomat, of "dealing with international affairs and contacting world leaders." But without a word of explanation, Assad nixed his New York City trip. Diplomatic sources tell TIME that he failed in his attempts to arrange tête-à-têtes with the Presidents of Russia and Turkey. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also pointedly left Assad out of a meeting with European and other Middle Eastern leaders. (The only one willing to meet...
...tribes. Starting in November 2003, tribal sheiks and Baathist expatriates held a series of monthly meetings at the Cham Palace hotel in Damascus. They were public events, supposedly meetings to express solidarity with the Iraqi opposition to the U.S. occupation. (The January 2004 gathering was attended by Syrian President Bashar Assad.) Behind the scenes, however, the meetings provided a convenient cover for leaders of the insurgency, including Muhammad Yunis al-Ahmed, the former Military Bureau director, to meet, plan and distribute money. A senior military officer told TIME that U.S. intelligence had an informant--a mid-level Baathist official...
...four people involved in the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco, refused to address the widespread Lebanese suspicion that Hariri's murder was ordered by the Syrian regime. Mehlis said, however: "We do think more people were involved." Last week, the U.S. State Department demanded that Syrian President Bashar Assad cooperate with the U.N. investigation, which thus far has been prevented from interrogating up to 15 senior Syrian officials. On Saturday, a Syrian official said that Damascus was ready to receive Mehlis, although a date has yet to be set. But even with such promises, Lebanese critics of Syria said...
Hariri quickly began plotting a comeback, aiming to win a landslide victory for his Future Movement in Lebanon's 2005 parliamentary elections. "He concluded that he could not achieve anything with Bashar," Hamade, who is recovering from eight operations after surviving the attempt on his life, told TIME. Hariri worked secretly behind the scenes to forge a powerful alliance opposed to Lahoud and the Syrians. The so-called Bristol Gathering brought together Christian, Druze and Sunni leaders. "He was the pillar of the opposition," says Jumblatt. On Jan. 29, Hariri met with his two main political allies, Basil Fleihan...