Word: syria
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...Saudis have been working hard to make sure Iran's ally Hizballah doesn't overthrow Fouad Siniora's government in Beirut. They've been trying to reconcile the Palestinians, partly to wean the militant Hamas from its funders in Tehran. Some even speculate that Riyadh is making overtures to Syria, trying to lure it too from the Iranian fold...
...farthest thing from his mind. "It was such a surprise," he said of the war soon after. "We never thought it would happen." Now war is constantly on Mahdi's mind, and he himself is sort of wandering, one of the million Iraqi refugees now living in Syria. Unlike many of his refugee compatriots, Mahdi at least has a job. Every evening he performs one of the star roles in Homesick, a play written, directed and performed by Iraqi refugees at a dingy theatre in downtown Damascus for an audience composed almost entirely of other Iraqi refugees...
...director of Homesick, an Iraqi Kurd named Suran Ali Sharif, had in the past staged a more topical, political play in Syria. But as anything recognizable as normal life in Iraq fell apart, and as the ranks of the refugee population in Syria swelled, Sharif decided that serious theater was out of the question. "It's impossible to present these troubles on stage," he said. Iraqis in Syria "are under such psychological pressure, all we can do is try to make people laugh." Still, there is at least one reflection of the new abnormal of Iraq in Homesick: Mahdi...
...Rice know that if the U.S. doesn't make a concerted effort to end the festering misery in the Palestinian territories, it will be much more difficult for them to respond to American entreaties to help stabilize Iraq and Lebanon and to contain the radical influences of Iran and Syria...
...ensuing popular demonstrations - the so-called Cedar Revolution - put Syria to rout, at least temporarily. The war between Hizballah and Israel last year, however, did huge physical damage to Lebanon. And emboldened by a strengthened alliance with Tehran, Damascus and its Lebanese allies began to fight back, accusing the government of being a tool of the West and attacking what it saw as unwarranted interference by the U.S. in Lebanese affairs. Last November six ministers, including all five Shi'a, resigned from the government, shortly before a cabinet vote to adopt a U.N. draft resolution on creating an international tribunal...