Word: hafez
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...motive of the killer, there is no shortage of speculation in Syria. Nicknamed "the imported general" by his friends because of his fair complexion and foreign looks, Suleiman had been a key aide to Assad since the mid-1990s, when Bashar was being groomed to succeed his father, Hafez al-Assad, as president. Suleiman, who comes from the same Alawite religious sect as the Assad family, supervised several portfolios, and oversaw Syria's weapons research and development program. After Assad became president in 2000, Suleiman handled his intelligence affairs and was reportedly also in charge of arms transfers from Syria...
...Beneath portraits of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and his late father, Hafez, one speaker after another called for an end to peace negotiations with Israel, demanded a lifting of the Israeli siege of Gaza, and urged Palestinians and Arabs to unite against Israel. "Zionists are bastards, and will always be bastards," said Hamas chief Khaled Meshal. "They will never be legitimate...
...West to one of the young President's bitterest critics. In 1998, Paris became the first Western capital visited by Assad in an official capacity, two years before he became President. Chirac also was the only Western head of state to attend the funeral of Assad's father, President Hafez al-Assad in 2000. He dispatched a close aide to Damascus to serve as French ambassador and a team of technocrats to assist Assad's reform efforts. Rafik Hariri, then Lebanese Prime Minister and close friend of Chirac, was instrumental in building France's relations with Syria, hoping in exchange...
...them to release their captives. In May of that year he says he extracted a pledge that all the hostages would be released within a week. A day later, he was visited by the head of Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon, who bore a message from then Syrian President Hafez al-Assad. Assad wanted the hostages released. Could Toufeili help? The Hizballah leader reassured the Syrians that the issue would be resolved shortly...
...Maghdousheh, 25 miles south of Beirut. In retaliation, Shi'ite militiamen mounted a tank-and-artillery attack on the Shatila refugee camp south of Beirut. Arafat promptly appealed to Arab leaders to help stop the "dangerous and beastly aggression," which he blamed on another old enemy, Syrian President Hafez Assad...