Word: rashid
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...lives, bringing the eight-month death toll to more than 4,000. (Lebanon's population is only 3 million. It is as though the U.S. had suffered 250,000 deaths in a civil war.) "We cannot stand any more fighting," said Lebanon's almost despairing Moslem Premier, Rashid Karami. "The country is on the brink of collapse...
...chance, Lebanon's twelfth cease-fire takes hold, the man responsible will be Premier Rashid Karami, whose amazing patience makes him look like "the man of eternal hope. "A Sunni Moslem lawyer from Tripoli, Karami locked himself in the Serail (Government House) during the peak of the most recent fighting and vowed he would not leave until the street battles ended. In effect, Karami became the government. He took over the direction of security affairs-he holds the Defense portfolio in addition to being Premier-and worked round the clock without the help of aides, pleading with leaders...
...cease-fire was the result of Premier Rashid Karami's tireless wheedling, pushing and talking with leaders of the rival warring factions (see box). But there was no agreement on any of the political issues that have divided Lebanon between conservative Christians, who constitute less than 40% of the population, and predominantly Moslem leftists, who are in the majority and want political reforms that would result in a more equitable distribution of power now largely in Christian hands...
...utterly incapable of finding a solution. In fact they were part of the problem. Many are zu'ama who solemnly discuss cease-fires even as their troops are shooting away. President Suleiman Franjieh, whose base is a virtually feudal Christian hill village outside Tripoli, so thoroughly detests Premier Rashid Karami, a Sunni Moslem, that they can barely work together. Though Karami began seeking a solution in Parliament last week, so many of its 99 deputies refused to venture out in the line of fire that a 50-member quorum was never mustered. Karami then invited nine key factional leaders...
Incapable of controlling the semifeudal political lords and their private militias who are responsible for the violence, Premier Rashid Karami faced increasing pressure to resign. He tentatively increased patrols by army troops in Beirut's downtown business sector and at all entrances to the city. Because most commanding officers in the 18,000-man army are Christian, Moslems fiercely oppose large-scale use of the military. Karami so far agrees and has warned that bringing in the army could destroy the country. But as the righting continued unabated, it seemed that the country was already approaching the edge...