Word: hafez
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Cease-Fire. In many ways, however, Syrian President Hafez Assad's decision to force a solution in Lebanon gave the conflict a potentially more dangerous dimension than it had had during the 14 months of fighting between Lebanese leftists, who are allied with the Palestinians, and Christian rightists. The Syrian incursion openly brought several Arab regimes into an arena in which they had all along been playing covert and opposing roles. There was thus the danger that Lebanon would remain a theater of quarrels between the moderate and radical Arab states now directly intervening in the country. The rightist...
Daring Move. The Syrian attacks last week were intended to check the mainly Moslem leftist forces and their radical Palestinian allies, who have been battling Lebanon's mainly Christian rightists. Syrian President Hafez Assad has been seeking a peace that would enable Christian and Moslem Lebanese to continue sharing political power; this would make it unlikely that a radical state would emerge on Syria's western frontier. This led Assad, earlier in the year, to send several thousand Syrian-led Saiqa fedayeen into Lebanon to bolster the Christian minority. Last week's action was a more daring...
...crisis, the U.S. is acting as middleman between Syria and Israel, just as it did between Egypt and Israel. While Washington backs Syria's initiative in Lebanon, it has also managed so far to calm Israeli fears regarding the purpose of the Syrian presence there. Although Syrian President Hafez Assad has kept other options open, he has begun to take the first hesitant steps in accepting Sadat's view that only the U.S. can get a settlement for the Arabs...
...mystery of the Middle East last week involved a country whose politics are murky even at the best of times. Is Syria's President Hafez Assad in serious trouble because of Lebanon? Israeli intelligence officials, no friends of Assad obviously, predicted that Syria "is on the eve of a coup." Syrian tank units, the Israelis said, had been pulled back to Damascus to protect the President. Palestinians in Beirut, who are also hostile to Assad's regime, insisted that Syrian army officers had been jailed for protesting their government's orders...
...Damascus, President Hafez Assad, in explanation of the Syrian moves, told a Baathist meeting that his troops had taken "a firm stand to oppose any party that insists on continuing the war." His remarks were aimed at leftist Moslem Leader Kamal Jumblatt, who had accused Syria of invading Lebanon and sent demonstrators into the streets of Tyre and Saida with banners that read: SAVE THE SYRIAN ARMY FOR THE CONFRONTATION WITH ISRAEL...