Word: hafez
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Flying into Damascus last week without fanfare or press conference, Vernon Walters, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, held what he called "very useful, very fruitful, very cordial" meetings with Syrian President Hafez Assad. It was a remarkable if discreet achievement after years of deep enmity between the two countries, which culminated in last year's recall of U.S. Ambassador William Eagleton after an attempt by Syrian-backed terrorists to blow up an El Al flight in Britain. Though U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon John Kelly says it is "premature to talk about rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria," Washington...
...same time, the Soviet Union has been urging one of its closest allies in the region, Syrian President Hafez Assad, to show some signs of moderation in order to increase his influence with his neighbors. In April, not long after his return from a trip to Moscow, Assad went to Jordan for a secret meeting with his long-time enemy, Iraq's President Saddam Hussein. Except for Libya, Syria is the only Arab state that backs non-Arab Iran in its seven-year war with Arab Iraq. Assad is believed unlikely to be ready to change sides in the gulf...
...Washington, White House officials disclosed last week that Syrian President Hafez Assad had accepted a written proposal from President Reagan for high-level talks on a variety of issues. The U.S. envoy to Damascus is likely to be Ambassador to the United Nations Vernon Walters...
...abduction was a particular embarrassment to Syrian President Hafez Assad, whose forces ostensibly control the Muslim half of Beirut. Glass was the first person to be kidnaped since 7,500 Syrian troops entered the city on Feb. 22, and to make matters worse, Syrian troops manned a checkpoint just 350 yds. from where the abduction took place. Moreover, the elder Osseiran, head of a powerful Shi'ite clan in Lebanon, is an important Syrian ally in Lebanese politics. Assad's troops began an intensive search for the latest kidnap victims, but by week's end they had turned...
Arafat wants to consolidate all Palestinian groups under the P.L.O. umbrella, perhaps to prepare them for possible negotiations with Israel within the framework of an international peace conference. He also wants to prevent his Arab rivals, notably Syrian President Hafez Assad, from continuing to exploit Palestinian feuding. For his part, Abu Nidal might welcome a reconciliation with the P.L.O. because his relations with his Syrian hosts have cooled considerably since 1986, when Assad came under heavy international pressure to distance himself from Abu Nidal-style terrorism...