Word: hafez
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SYRIA President Hafez Assad's behavior is motivated mostly by one aim: the return of the Golan Heights. Outclassed by the Israelis militarily, the Syrians believe that their best chance rests in having outsiders pressure the Jewish state to abide by U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338, which call on Israel to trade land for peace. Thus Damascus will not settle simply for a one-on-one session with Israel. At the same time, Assad is tempted by the opportunity he sees in Saddam's humiliation to take his old rival's place as the No. 1 radical Arab strongman...
Life in exile isn't so bad -- just ask Rifaat Assad, the fiftysomething brother of Syrian strongman Hafez Assad. Rifaat once ran a 20,000-man militia at home but was kicked out of the country in 1983 when Hafez Assad began to worry about his sibling's lust for power. Since then Rifaat has lived the lush life of a global businessman, managing millions of dollars' worth of investments in Europe and the Middle East. He visits the properties with an entourage of 20 that includes his two wives and several shapely female "secretaries," all traveling aboard two customized...
...word failure in the same news story, abandoned his first peace effort a year ago because of Israeli intransigence. Last week flashes of frustration occasionally cracked through his self-discipline. He slept poorly, acted testy with reporters after a 9 1/ 2-hour session with Syrian President Hafez Assad and went running to let off steam...
...deal with an unfriendly population within his country's borders. He gassed the rebellious Kurds in 1988 and is now continuing the genocide. Jordan's King Hussein took care of a Palestinian revolt in his country in 1970 by slaughtering thousands of Palestinians in a few weeks. Syria's Hafez al-Assad literally levelled the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled city of Hama, killing over 20,000 of his own citizens when fundamentalists challenged his dictatorship...
...mongering means Beijing has turned its back on a commitment to Washington that it would no longer sell such weapons in the region. Despite the U.S. pressure, China seems determined to continue the arms bazaar. Beijing officials are well aware that the U.S. is reluctant to stop Syrian President Hafez Assad -- an allied coalition partner in the gulf war -- from making a major weapons purchase...