Word: bekaa
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...still trying desperately to contain the revolt that broke out two months ago within Fatah, the P.L.O.'s dominant group. His charge that Syrian President Hafez Assad fanned the rebellion prompted Syria to expel Arafat last month. Although thousands of his fighters remain in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, Arafat has had to move his base of operations to Tunisia while trying to win support from Arab leaders and the Soviet Union. The P.L.O. leader could take little comfort in the news from Moscow last week. According to a TASS report, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko suggested in effect...
...rift within Fatah. It is very, very serious. As I told my fighters today, it is a case of Arab interference. Our bases in the Bekaa Valley are surrounded. The Libyan role is clear. [Libyan Leader] Muammar [Gaddafi] and his mass media are declaring that they are taking part in the attacks against our forces. The Syrians are saying they are not involved, but their moves make their role clear also. Their tanks and troops are blockading our bases...
...Arab efforts to mediate the crisis. Through the Saudis and other Arabs, I made this point: Stop the clashes in the Bekaa Valley. If they do not arrive at an agreement with the Syrians, then Damascus should let us move our troops from the Bekaa to Tripoli [a port city on the Lebanese coast]. But I do not think the Syrians will allow us to withdraw...
...month-old rebellion within the Palestine Liberation Organization reached the crisis stage last week, with the future of Chairman Yasser Arafat in serious jeopardy. All week long, P.L.O. rebels, who consider Arafat's policies too moderate, attacked P.L.O. military positions in and around the Bekaa Valley of eastern Lebanon. In a spectacular ambush, aimed at killing or capturing Arafat himself, the rebels stormed a convoy of twelve P.L.O. vehicles in the western Syrian town of Homs. Arafat, who was safely in Damascus, declared that a dozen of his men had been killed or wounded in the attack. Hours later...
...point, Arafat seemed ready to offer an amnesty to the leaders of the revolt. There was no such talk as the chairman led a two-day meeting of the Fatah central committee in the Bekaa Valley. Arafat is now paying the price of the P.L.O.'s defeat last year in Lebanon and of his subsequent efforts toward compromise. If he should lose the present power struggle, the P.L.O. could easily split into two or more groups, with Arafat leading the more moderate elements and the Syrians dominating the more radical wing...