Word: bustani
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Rules for the Fedayeen. The ten-day shoot-out between the Lebanese army and Al-Fatah, which threatened to plunge Lebanon into civil war, was settled by a compromise. Major General Emile Bustani, Lebanon's chief of staff, who represented President Charles Helou at the Cairo talks, gave a pledge to Yusser Arafat, leader of the main guerrilla organization, Al-Fatah, that...
...took the fedayeen's side. Many openly roasted Lebanon's President Charles Helou for refusing to allow them free movement. But last week, shocked that the crisis showed no signs of letup, the Arabs grew uneasy. Nasser invited both sides to conciliatory talks. Lebanese Army Chief Emile Bustani promptly flew into Cairo with proposals for a truce. In agreeing to the meeting, Helou insisted that "Lebanon's sovereignty should not be less than that of any other Arab state." In other words, he still wanted final say about where the guerrillas should operate...
Died. Emile Bustani. 55, founder and chairman of Lebanon's $60 million Contracting & Trading Co. (CAT), the Middle East's biggest and most important industrialist, a friend of the West who was a firm advocate of inter-Arab economic development; in the crash of his private plane; in the Mediterranean near Beirut...
Today, CAT's 17,000 employees operate in 19 Arab, African and Asian countries. Apart from its reputation as a topflight builder, CAT's chief asset is Bustani's keen awareness of the touchy sensitivities of underdeveloped nations. Whenever he enters a new country, he insists on setting up a local subsidiary, encourages local investors to buy stock, and makes it clear that he intends the company to be locally run. Says he: "When we went into Pakistan seven years ago, we sent more than 100 people there from Beirut. Now we have only three Beirut staffers...
Life Sentence. Unwilling to be "just a businessman," Bustani is the confidant of most of the Mideast's rulers, and the author of two provocative books on "the Arab problem." A Maronite Christian and Western in his ways, he is both an intense Arab nationalist and an intense advocate of Arab partnership with the West. His formula for establishing such a partnership: both sides must forget the past, start over with mutual respect...