Word: damascus
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Arafat -- should know by now, the intifadeh seems to be running itself. Arafat and other Arab leaders have lent considerable rhetorical support to the uprising, as well as an undetermined amount and of financial aid. Just last week Arafat and Syrian President Hafez Assad held a surprise meeting in Damascus to assert their joint symbolic control over the uprising. The encounter was their first since 1983, whenAssad sent the Palestinian leader into exile after a long feud. "There are no differences among the one family," said Arafat after the meeting. "The outcome ((of the session)) will serve the interests...
...within view of the West Bank. King Hussein had consented, although Jordanian officials were concerned that the burial might spark demonstrations of support for the uprising from the two-thirds of the Jordanian population that is Palestinian. Then word came that al-Wazir would be interred in Syria, and Damascus invited all P.L.O. leaders to attend the funeral...
...taking of Flight 422 exacerbated tensions throughout the Middle East. Syria, which has backed Iran in the gulf conflict, apparently infuriated Tehran by refusing to let the hijacked jetliner land in Damascus after it left Mashhad; at the same time, the skyjacking deepened the split between Iran and the P.L.O. The incident seemed somehow familiar: after the TWA hijacking in 1985, Thomas Cullins, one of the American hostages, noted that "we're pawns in an incredibly complex political and religious movement." The pawns were different last week, but the game had not changed...
...Palestinians were reported wounded in the Gaza Strip during street battles between soldiers and Arabs protesting the assassination of Khalil Wazir, the PLO military commander. He was killed in Tunis last Saturday by commandos said to be Israelis, and buried Wednesday in Damascus, Syria...
Despite his reputation as a plodding and phlegmatic diplomat, Secretary of State George Shultz does not lack for energy. His wanderings over the past two weeks in search of a Middle East peace have taken him to Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, Cairo and London, where Jordan's King Hussein met with him between bouts of dental surgery. After two days of NATO summitry in Brussels, the Shultz shuttle, with Ronald Reagan's blessing, rumbled back to London before heading to the Middle East again. Said an elated senior diplomat aboard Shultz's plane: "It's the only game in town...