Word: damascus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...that will make any future territorial negotiations with Syria considerably more difficult. The Cabinet issued a stern warning that "Israel will deem Syria responsible for any murderous activity perpetrated by terrorists coming from Syrian territory." In response, Palestine commando leaders in Lebanon threatened stepped-up activity against Israel. From Damascus came reports that Syria would not stand idly by while Israel built new settlements on the Golan Heights...
...Syrians, however, trumpeted the Security Council vote as a major victory for their aggressive strategy-and as a major setback for the Egyptian policy of seeking peace on the installment plan with Israel. "Syria has realized an important political achievement for the Palestinian cause," proclaimed the Damascus newspaper Al Thawra. "The Security Council's resolution was a defeat for the step-by-step diplomacy and the policy of bilateral and partial solutions." Syrian Defense Minister Major-General Moustafa Tlas also gratuitously sneered at the Egyptian-Israeli accord on the Sinai. "The Egyptian administration regained a few kilometers of land...
Russian Advisers. "Sometimes." says one Damascus intellectual, "we feel we are behind the curtain." Despite new openings to foreigners, travel outside the country is difficult for Syrian citizens. Men cannot leave until they have completed military service. Women must be at least 30 years old; before that, they are expected to hold down jobs in place of men in the military. About 50 categories of professionals and technicians, including doctors, lawyers and engineers, are denied exit visas lest they refuse to return home. Also forbidden to emigrate are Syria's 4,000 Jews, the remnant of a community that...
...April, for example, 200 people were rounded up and imprisoned on the eve of the Baath Party Congress, probably because they were not Assad men. Publicly, however, they were charged with aiding Iraq, which is governed by a rival wing of the Baath movement. Although relations between Baghdad and Damascus have improved, the two neighbors have frequently been at the brink of war - sometimes over ideology, but sometimes over rights to the waters of the Euphrates River. Last fall both governments rushed troops to the border after Iraq complained that Syria's vast new Tabqa dam on the Euphrates...
Interviewing President Hafez Assad in Damascus last week, TIME Beirut Bureau Chief Karsten Prager and Correspondent William Marmon asked the question on everyone's mind - would Syria renew the Golan Heights mandate? "No decision, no decision," answered a grinning Assad in English. Prager and Marmon found Assad visibly delighted by the suspense he had created over the situation. Otherwise, though, the Syrian President was thoughtful and straightforward as he sketched his views on the prospects for a Middle East peace settlement. Excerpts from the 2½-hour conversation...