Word: damascus
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...November. Almost simultaneously, Syrian and Israeli troops clashed on the Golan Heights. It was the first such incident since the Syrian-Israeli disengagement in May 1974. The Syrian strategy seemed clearly designed to discredit Sadat in the Arab world on the eve of his departure to Washington. Damascus apparently intends to raise tension on the Golan to draw world attention to this unsolved problem, and President Hafez Assad has warned that Syria may not renew the U.N. force mandate, which expires on Nov. 30. By contrast, the peacekeeping-force mandate for the Sinai was approved last week by the Security...
Even if the new truce holds, the latest round of fighting has probably ended Beirut's long reign as the commercial queen of the Arab world. At least 25,000 Lebanese, including many prominent businessmen, have taken refuge in Damascus, while others have fled to Athens or other points in Europe. More than 60% of the 1,000 Japanese assigned to Beirut have left the country. The list of American firms that have ordered their personnel or their dependents to leave Lebanon reads like a roll call of U.S. business overseas: General Electric, General Motors, Boeing, Lockheed, FMC Corp...
...prognosis is not good; Syria last week not only attacked Jerusalem and Washington as part of what Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas called "our enemies, including U.S. imperialism and its agents and traitors," but Damascus also apparently included Egypt-for signing a Kissinger agreement-among the traitors. To blunt such attacks, Kissinger at the U.N. threw out a new proposal for an informal meeting of all Middle East "nations." By inference, that would exclude the Palestine Liberation Organization, but at the same time it could draw the Soviets once more into intricate discussions on such matters as the Golan Heights...
...accuracy. It is the Pershing II that Israel is after. Defense Minister Shimon Peres, arriving in Washington last week with a shopping list for $2.3 billion in aid and weapons this year, said that Israel views the Pershing as a deterrent, since it can reach such Arab cities as Damascus, Cairo and Amman with devastating force. As Israeli Premier Yitzhak Rabin put it last week in Jerusalem: "The stronger we are, the less will be the temptation to attack...
Expiring Mandate. Some sort of new negotiations between Jerusalem and Damascus seem unavoidable nonetheless. The mandate for United Nations peace-keeping forces on the Golan expires Nov. 30, and if their stay is not extended, the possibility of hostilities will increase sharply. Assad, who is clearly keeping a negotiating door open, has indicated that he will not accept a limited Israeli withdrawal. Although he is anxious for an agreement, Assad obviously is taking a hard line to prevent Arab radicals from accusing him of appeasement. Rabin says that while Israel is willing to move back considerably from its present Golan...