Word: golan
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...coup was the climax of a bizarre week-long drama of Arab and Israeli face-saving, double-talking, bluff-calling and epithet-hurling. It began when the Security Council, after frantic three-day consultations, accepted a Syrian demand that renewal of the mandate for the U.N. forces on the Golan Heights be linked to a proposal for a full-scale Security Council debate on the Middle East. Representatives of the P.L.O., who gained permanent observer status in the General Assembly last year but had never been included in Security Council proceedings before, were to be invited to participate in this...
Complex questions were involved in Waldheim's effort to keep the 1,220-man force of Austrians, Iranians, Canadians and Poles on the Golan. Israel was willing to renew the mandate, but only on the same terms as the original mandate worked out by Kissinger in May 1974. Damascus made renewal of the mandate a cliffhanger by presenting some new - and to Israel, unacceptable - demands. Syria argued that any extension of the U.N. force should be tied to a Security Council decision on rights for the Palestinians and to a peace treaty, within six months, calling for Israeli withdrawal...
...does not want another Middle East war so soon after 1973 (see box), and is testing diplomatic alternatives while keeping up his military guard. His brinkmanship act over the U.N. mandate last week was in part intended to show the world that Syria plans to regain all of the Golan Heights. Syria has refused to rebuild the ruined city of Quneitra, the ancient Golan capital given up by Israel in the 1974 disengagement agreement. Syrian officials delight in showing foreign visitors the remains of buildings bulldozed by the Israelis before they left...
Washington, for its part, fears that Assad could upset the delicate Middle East balance by pressing too hard for the Palestinians or by allowing the fedayeen to carry out more Golan raids, which would provoke Israeli retaliation against Syria, increasing the danger of renewed war. At least, however, Assad has effectively stifled all meaningful opposition at home. As one diplomat puts it, his "instincts for survival are impressive." To ensure the safety of his regime, the President has a Praetorian Guard, consisting of 25,000 men under the command of his brother Rifaat Assad, 34. In any case, Washington hopes...
Interviewing President Hafez Assad in Damascus last week, TIME Beirut Bureau Chief Karsten Prager and Correspondent William Marmon asked the question on everyone's mind - would Syria renew the Golan Heights mandate? "No decision, no decision," answered a grinning Assad in English. Prager and Marmon found Assad visibly delighted by the suspense he had created over the situation. Otherwise, though, the Syrian President was thoughtful and straightforward as he sketched his views on the prospects for a Middle East peace settlement. Excerpts from the 2½-hour conversation...