Word: hizballah
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...want to do is send a clear signal to Assad that if Saddam wants to come to Damascus, he's not welcome there," says a U.S. official. Washington also hopes to strong-arm the Syrians into giving up some of their worst habits--such as sponsoring organizations like Hizballah, which the U.S. labels a terrorist group, and the violent Palestinian activists of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as developing chemical weapons. Washington effectively put Assad on notice that, as Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz said, "there's got to be change in Syria...
Bashar, it turns out, is his father's son after all. He is as obsessed with the Arab struggle against Israel as Hafez ever was. On Bashar's watch, Syria's military grip on neighboring Lebanon has loosened only slightly. Syria's support for violent groups like Hizballah and Hamas is unwavering. Despite his Western education, he's in no hurry to promote reforms that might threaten his regime's control. Like his father, Bashar is ready for a peace deal with Israel that wins back the Golan Heights, lost in the 1967 war, but he is holding...
...accept that analysis, then what should the Administration do now? The government of Iran has supported terrorism in the past--it is, with Syria, a supporter of Lebanon's Hizballah--and has long coveted nuclear weapons. In principle, the mullahs of Tehran should be quaking in their sandals. Indeed, one State Department official says a debate is emerging within the Administration along the lines of, When do we start shifting our policy toward isolating Iran and toward bringing down that regime as well...
...mullahs can sleep relatively easily, their proteges in Hizballah should not. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage--considered a dove in this Administration--last year showed his talons. "Hizballah," he said, "may be the A Team of terrorists. They're on the list, and their time will come. There is no question about it." A senior Republican foreign-policy analyst says a possible attack on Hizballah's camps is "not too big to swallow...
Relative caution on Iran, relative hawkishness on Hizballah and Syria. Within the terms of the Administration's policy objectives, that sort of pecking order makes sense. But in the Middle East--and among Washington's closest allies--such a to-do list would have a gaping hole. The U.S. cannot meet its objective of building a safer world without determinedly addressing the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. The suffering of Palestinians, beamed into televisions in homes all over the Middle East, is a recruiting sergeant for militant groups. "We are demanding that serious results be made on the Israel front, not just...