Word: hafez
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...Persian Gulf crisis remains unresolved, but it has already produced its first clear-cut winner: Syrian President Hafez Assad. By crushing Aoun's 11- month rebellion once and for all, Assad has expanded his already considerable influence over his western neighbor. Under ordinary circumstances, an extension of Syrian hegemony in Lebanon would have provoked alarm in several foreign capitals, especially Washington and Jerusalem. But by strongly supporting the U.S.-led alliance against Saddam Hussein, Assad has won a wide berth for exercising his might. While denying speculation that Washington acquiesced to Syria's raid on Aoun's forces...
...Elias Hrawi asked Syria to help him rout his rival, General Michel Aoun, from his stronghold in Beirut's Christian enclave, thus giving Damascus the opportunity to complete its control of Lebanon at a moment when the world is distracted by other events in the Middle East. Syrian President Hafez Assad ordered thousands of troops to Beirut to beef up the 10,000 Syrian soldiers already there. On Friday a lone gunman shot twice at Aoun, missing the general and wounding an aide instead...
...also caught in a political squeeze. The gulf leaders refuse his calls, and he is unwelcome in their countries. In addition, the emerging Saudi-Egyptian-Syrian axis cuts him out of the locus of power. Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak feels personally betrayed by Arafat, and Syria's Hafez Assad has long disdained...
...ordering someone's death. It is often argued that an assassination of Adolf Hitler before World War II might have saved tens of millions of lives. If killing Hitler would have been morally justified, how about Idi Amin Dada, under whose regime 300,000 Ugandans died? Or Syrian President Hafez Assad, who has given protection to the Palestinian group considered responsible for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland? What level of evil deeds or threat to world peace justifies as asassination, and who is qualified to make such a judgment? Those questions are impossible...
...image of American firmness on terrorism was somewhat shaken by Secretary of State James Baker's visit last week to Syria, a country the U.S. officially lists as a sponsor of terrorist organizations. Baker emphasized that the U.S. has "differences" with Syria and its steel-fisted dictator, Hafez Assad. But he wanted to encourage Damascus to send more troops to the international effort in the gulf. His four-hour meeting with Assad was also intended to underscore for Arab nationalists that not all radicals side with Iraq. Assad agreed to dispatch 300 tanks and an estimated 15,000 soldiers...