Word: karami
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Like a cancer checked in one organ only to flare up in another, factional fighting erupted again in Lebanon last week. Premier Rashid Karami's reluctant decision to order army units into the northern sector of the country (TIME, Sept. 22) finally halted the violence around Tripoli. But Lebanon's second largest city had hardly quieted down when street warfare broke out in Beirut for the fourth time since last April. More than 100 people were killed in several days of shooting and bombing in the capital before a tenuous truce was negotiated at week...
Christian Officers. The latest fighting had particularly ominous political overtones. Tripoli is the home town and political base of Premier Rashid Karami, a Sunni Moslem. Since midsummer, Karami has headed a "rescue government" whose first priority is to end the religious strife that has paralyzed the nation. Zgharta is the home village of Lebanese President Suleiman Franjieh, a Maronite Christian and longtime political foe of Karami's. Indeed, the gunman alleged to have executed the Moslem bus riders is a distant relative of the President's.* Thus forces loyal to Lebanon's two highest officials were locked...
Meeting in emergency session with their six-man rescue Cabinet, Franjieh and Karami grappled with the question of whether to send in Lebanon's 18,000-man armed forces to end the fighting. Some political leaders were reluctant to do so, since the officer corps is dominated by Maronite Christians. Moreover, the army commander, Major General Iskandar Ghanem, an old friend of Franjieh's, had antagonized Moslems by ordering the army two years ago to attack militant Palestinians in Lebanon, and by his inability to protect the country from Israeli attacks (another one took place last week, aimed...
Gargantuan Crises. The fighting eased at midweek soon after Premier-designate Rashid Karami finally managed to form what he called a "rescue government." Karami, 53, a Moslem who has served as Premier eight times before, spent seven months in 1969 trying to put together a Cabinet. This time, after the traditional quadrille of maneuvering with many of the country's 21 parties and nine parliamentary blocs, he managed the job in only five weeks. The country might be falling apart around them, but Lebanon's aging political leaders-including President Suleiman Franjieh, 65-painstakingly haggled and bargained their...
Sectarian Distrust. Karami proposed a Cabinet, therefore, that would exclude both extreme right-and left-wing groups until the country had calmed down, but his proposal fell on deaf ears. So far the underlying issues -which cut to the heart of Lebanon's sectarian distrust between Christians and Moslems-have proved to be insoluble. "The difficulty in resolving the political crisis," observed a Western diplomat, "has hindered the resolution of the security crisis." At one point Karami threatened to give up his efforts to form a government, but by week's end had been persuaded by his colleagues...