Word: syria
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...could distinguish between a nuclear explosion, which generates million-degree temperatures, X rays and gamma rays, and an exploding meteor, which would produce considerably lower temperatures and no deadly radiation. But smaller nations, unaware of the nature of the blast, might react violently. Says Shoemaker: "Suppose it happens over Syria or Pakistan?" He proposes that the U.S. immediately try to determine whether the explosion was of cosmic origin and notify the affected nation...
...have no intention of attacking Syria, and Syria has no chance of defeating Israel." So said Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres last week, for the moment allaying fears that Israel might be on the verge of making a pre- emptive strike against its strongest Arab neighbor. Almost simultaneously, Syria's Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam declared that the Damascus government of President Hafez Assad "is not seeking aggression," though he added that Syria would "respond with all the potential it possesses" if attacked. Those statements were intended to put to rest, at least temporarily, a flurry of war talk that...
...latest crisis was sparked by fresh allegations that Syria may have played a role in recent terrorist attacks in Europe and the Mediterranean, even though in the past the Assad government has consistently deplored such assaults against civilians. The charges, pressed by the Israelis but confirmed in some particulars by some Western intelligence agencies, link Syria with the recent attempt by a Jordanian-born Palestinian to plant a bomb aboard a London-Tel Aviv El Al flight with 360 passengers aboard. Evidence also surfaced that could tie the Syrians to a West Berlin explosion that destroyed the German-Arab Friendship...
...latest allegations came at a time of mounting unrest between Israel and Syria. In recent weeks the Syrians have been building new tank and artillery emplacements in southern Lebanon. As Peres put it, Syrian forces have been steadily "creeping" toward Israel's northern border. Only last week Syrian- backed Lebanese guerrillas fired two Katyusha rockets across the border, wounding an Israeli and two of his children in Upper Galilee. Israel's costly 1982 war in Lebanon was supposed to have stopped such attacks...
Though Syrian President Hafez Assad has so far been cleverer than Gaddafi in covering his tracks, revelations of a possible Syrian role in the El Al attempt have raised the already high level of tension between Israel and Syria. Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told TIME last week that he believed "the decision about this crazy murderous act was taken at a relatively high level" in the Syrian government. Syria's support of terrorism "increased the danger" of a military confrontation, he warned, but he stressed that Israel does not intend to go to war with its neighbor...