Word: hariri
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...Assad's long stint of international isolation by making Syria a founding member of the newly formed Mediterranean Union. Although Sarkozy faced heated criticism in July for embracing Assad - who is denounced by human rights activists and widely accused of orchestrating the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri - the French President has defended the move as realpolitik designed to turn an enemy into an ally. That argument will now be put to the test...
...hardly a poster boy for the liberty France celebrates on its national day. Indeed, Chirac, hardly an acolyte of the Bush Administration, had been every bit as vehement as Washington on the need to punish Syria over its alleged involvement in the 2005 assassination of Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri. Chirac boycotted this year's Bastille Day events to protest at the Syrian leader's presence...
...justifying his July invitation to Assad, Sarkozy noted that Damascus had signaled a willingness to work to end its isolation following the Hariri killing. Ahead of Wednesday's visit, meanwhile, French officials cited other examples of improved Syrian behavior, including its hosting of Lebanese prime minister Michel Suleimane last month, and plans for Syria to open its first-ever embassy in Beirut...
...Syrian first couple were personae non grata in Western capitals. The U.S., which accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorism, led an effort to isolate the country diplomatically and economically. And in a rare instance of Franco-American harmony, France had its own grudge against Syria: the 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese Prime Minister and close friend of former French President Jacques Chirac, an act for which many in the West blamed Syria...
Syria is still considered the chief suspect in the assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former Prime Minister who was killed in a truck bomb explosion in February 2005. An international tribunal is being established to try Hariri's killers and the perpetrators of several other assassinations since then. Syria has denied involvement in the deaths and argues that the tribunal is nothing more than a political weapon wielded by the U.S. Still, few doubt that fences need to be mended between Lebanon and Syria, however difficult that may prove: in their 60 or so years of independent existence...