Word: gemayel
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...Gemayel's visit to Damascus signals a Syrian fait accompli
...ceremony that marked both a welcome for the guest and a triumph for the host. On the tarmac of the city's international airport, Syrian President Hafez Assad waited patiently as a chartered executive jet glided to a halt and delivered his reluctant visitor, Lebanese President Amin Gemayel. The two men embraced, then repaired to a dais while ranks of Syrian troops passed in review and field guns barked out a 21-gun salute. The solicitous display spoke volumes about the intricacies of politics in the Middle East. Having achieved almost everything he desired in Lebanon, Assad...
...During Gemayel's two-day visit to Damascus-remarkably, his first since taking power 17 months ago-he and Assad worked out the conditions of the new Syrian hegemony. Chief among their topics was how best to abrogate the May 17 security agreement between Israel and Lebanon, a condition to which Gemayel had agreed in principle before leaving for Damascus. In return Assad was prepared to support Gemayel's continuation in office, albeit within a restructured Lebanese political system that would give more power to the Druze and Shi'ite Muslim opposition groups that have been wreaking...
After four meetings totaling more than seven hours, a Syrian spokesman described the sessions between Assad and Gemayel as "positive and fruitful." Tangible results, he said, would occur "within the next few days." The first fruit of the talks, however, was supposed to be a general cease-fire in Lebanon. At week's end that had not yet been achieved, even though Assad was exerting considerable pressure on Gemayel's chief opponents in Lebanon, Druze Leader Walid Jumblatt and Nabih Berri, head of the Shi'ite Amal militia. By Saturday, however, Jumblatt and Berri had dropped their...
...next result of the Assad-Gemayel talks will be the attempted resuscitation of the moribund Geneva negotiations among all Lebanese factions over the formation of a government of national unity. A spokesman for Gemayel predicted that the conference would begin by the end of this week, "if not sooner." Opposition Leaders Jumblatt and Berri would most likely be invited to join the new government, which Syria has promised to help by extending its rule to parts of Lebanon currently outside Gemayel's control...