Word: damascus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...collection began with a small prayer rug purchased from a souk in the old city of Damascus, to celebrate the safe completion of a stint working in Iraq. The Syrian capital has always been a particularly good place to shop for rugs, ever since Silk Road travelers from the great weaving cultures of Central Asia passed through this final arc of the fertile crescent on their way to the Holy lands. Those days are long gone, but Iranian pilgrims visiting Shi'ite Muslim shrines in Syria still sometimes bring in rugs as a way to circumvent Tehran's restrictions...
...country may yet be decided in the realm of politics. Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, a senior Republican who recently visited Syria, last week publicly suggested that the U.N. inquiry into Hariri's killing could be reduced in scope in exchange for greater security and political cooperation from Damascus in key areas of U.S. concern. Specter said he had been told by King Abdullah of Jordan that "the item that is most on the mind of President Bashar Assad is the action of the international tribunal which could lead to his indictment." But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice quickly slapped...
...just who will be implicated by the U.N. inquiry remains something of a mystery, despite the widespread speculation that Damascus had a hand in Hariri's killing. Last week, a star witness in the ongoing probe suddenly vanished while under French police protection. The complicated tale of the witness, identified as the chauffeur to a Syrian general suspected of involvement in planning the bomb attack that killed Hariri and 22 others, underscores some of the many problems that have surrounded the investigation. The French newspaper Le Figaro reports that evidence quickly emerged that the witness had been paid to implicate...
...Following the announcement, Damascus expressed satisfaction that the investigator had not named Syria as explicitly behind the killing. Top members of the regime have long been widely viewed as suspects - an allegation Damascus has always denied. The Syrian government also accused the U.S. and its allies of using the Hariri inquiry as a tool to pressure Damascus, along with a series of unilateral sanctions recently imposed by Washington on key figures linked to the regime...
...government and the Syrian-backed opposition are unable to agree on a new President. Following the murder, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Beirut and other cities to demand the withdrawal of the Syrian troops that had been garrisoned in the country for decades, as Damascus acted as the dominant influence in Lebanese politics. Despite the withdrawal of its troops and the creation of the pro-Western government, Syria has continued to exert political influence through Hizballah, Lebanon's largest political party also backed by Iran, and its Christian allies under General Michel Aoun...