Word: damascus
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...international tribunal was established by the U.N. Security Council earlier this month to judge Hariri's killers once indictments are issued. Syria has strenuously denied any involvement in Hariri's death and says it will not cooperate with the tribunal, which it regards as a political tool to pressure Damascus into complying with Washington's demands...
Still, anti-Syrian Lebanese believe that Damascus is stirring the current violence to force the Western-backed Lebanese government to abandon its support for the tribunal. UNIFIL officials have been concerned for months that the peacekeepers could become caught up in Lebanon's instability, with the chief threat coming from al-Qaeda. Ayman al-Zawahiri, deputy to Osama bin Laden, has twice referred to UNIFIL in recent months. In February, he described the peacekeepers as "international crusader forces" and urged his "brothers in Islam and Jihad in Lebanon" to attack them. Arrested militants of Fatah al-Islam, which includes jihadist...
...kicked Hamas out of his government, the group has been careful not to pick fights with him. The group's political leader, Khaled Mashaal, declared that "Abbas has legitimacy ... he is an elected President, and we will cooperate with him in the national interest." From his exile base in Damascus, Mashaal also said Hamas would abide by past resolutions it has signed with Fatah, including one that "honored" previous Palestinian accords with Israel...
...Hamas veteran and former Prime Minister has lost his official title, but he still retains authority in Gaza. He reports to Hamas political leader Khaled Mashaal, who lives in Damascus...
...mission to examine security procedures along the Lebanon-Syria border and will conclude that much needs to be done to tighten border security. That could spur U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon to recommend dispatching a U.N. observer mission to monitor the porous frontier. Such a decision will anger Damascus, which has repeatedly stated its opposition to an international presence along its border with Lebanon. It will further add pressure on the Palestinian bases, which are linked to Syria via numerous remote trails that criss-cross the mountainous border. The Lebanese army tightened control over the bases 18 months...