Word: damascus
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...Egyptians, who suggested a wider swap of prisoners. As talks progressed, Egypt asked that Israel return the Syrian pilots, and the Israelis countered by demanding the return of Samueloff and Muallem. This brought Syria grudgingly into the bargaining, which was conducted largely through the Italian embassy in Damascus and broke down three times. The International Red Cross concluded the arrangement for the complicated three-way trade. While Israel was emotionally glad to get its four men back, the deal itself was not universally welcomed. Some fear that the rate of exchange was so heavily weighted against Israel-71 Egyptians...
...Middle East the direct approach is not always the most successful one. Last week a complicated three-way swap of prisoners took place among Israel, Syria and Egypt. Shlomo Samueloff, a Hebrew University physiology professor, and Saleh Muallem, a travel agent, had been held in Damascus since their TWA jet was hijacked on Aug. 29. They were exchanged for 13 Syrians held by the Israelis, including two pilots who had accidentally flown their Syrian Air Force MIG-17s into Israel 16 months ago. In an emotional scene at Lydda airport, Premier Golda Meir hugged and kissed the two returnees...
...Fatah Leader Yasser Arafat, on the other hand, decided to milk world opinion before attending the Cairo meeting. He first flew to Damascus, where he persuaded his compliant Syrian hosts to suspend their rule barring Lebanese and Western newsmen from the country. As a result, Arafat had a sizable EastWest audience for the first formal press conference he has ever held. Oozing confidence, the guerrilla leader strode into the Damascus University law-school auditorium wearing a five-day growth of beard but without the tinted wraparound sunglasses that have become something of a trademark...
...days later, Al-Fatah avenged what its radio station called "a brutal massacre." Striking across the Syrian border in a maneuver that could not have been conducted without approval from the far-left regime in Damascus, commandos hit the Lebanese border towns of Masnaa, Arida and Biqeiha. Overpowering police and customs posts, the guerrillas took 24 captives. They were later set free, but only after Al-Fatah bragged that their capture was "full evidence of the revolution's ability to take any measures it considers appropriate for self-defense." Al-Fatah, in other words, would move when and where...
Border Troubles. Helou also telephoned Syria's head of state, Noureddine Atassi, to protest Damascus' support of the guerrilla raids. Atassi had closed the Syrian-Lebanese border, stranding more than 500 trucks along the 68-mile Beirut-Damascus highway, one of the Middle East's busiest trade routes. Ignoring Helou's protests, Syria -or the fedayeen-moved riflemen, armored cars and mortars to the Lebanese frontier. At week's end some troops were reported to have crossed the border and occupied a village four miles inside Lebanon. The Syrians have traditionally been better at rattling...