Word: hassanal
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...Ford has not yet been sent to Damascus, in part because of U.S. concerns over the increase in weapons deliveries to Hizballah and other issues. Administration officials were particularly miffed when Assad hosted both Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah at a dinner in Damascus in February, shortly after the U.S. had named Ford as ambassador-designate. In his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during confirmation hearings, Ford voiced concern that though the Syrian government says it is committed to a comprehensive Middle East peace agreement, it also threatens to revert to its old behavior...
...south. Those numbers may have persuaded the international community to subordinate democracy to the cause of peace, but a slew of opposition groups withdrew from the presidential election ahead of the poll - citing repression and the expectation of vote-rigging - leaving no serious challengers to the incumbent, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. In the upside-down world of Sudanese politics, it was the party that fought hardest for democracy that pulled the plug on the country's moment of "democratic transformation": the Sudan People's Liberation Movement (SPLM), which led the south in a decades-long struggle against the regime...
...same time, critics of Saif say that talk of serious change is merely a ruse. "It is all just a game," says Hassan al-Amin, who runs an exile website from London. "Saif cannot do anything without his dad's blessing. They have a great relationship." Skeptics point to Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad promised change but has brought few reforms since his father Hafez died in 2000. In neighboring Egypt, Hosni Mubarak's son Gamal could face a similar predicament if he runs in next year's presidential elections. (See "Why the U.S. Is Back on the Road...
...Sudanese government has agreed to a peace deal with the most powerful rebel group in the war-ravaged Darfur region, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). The cease-fire, signed after a year of negotiations, was described by Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir as a "major step" toward ending the seven-year conflict in which non-Arab African rebel groups have battled the Arab-dominated government. The agreement paves the way for JEM's inclusion in the government and may ease international pressure against al-Bashir's controversial administration ahead of the national election. However, the absence of other...
...evidence, analysts suspect Jundallah received support and succor from a web of shadowy sources, including perhaps Saudi, Pakistani, Israeli and even U.S. intelligence agents. "The one consensus among experts on this matter is that Rigi was not his own man. He must have been getting aid from somewhere," says Hassan Abbas, a former Pakistani government official and currently a professor at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs...