Word: syria
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...Rice has been slow to recognize the extent to which the U.S.'s prestige has declined. In 2005, the convergence of elections in the Palestinian territories and Iraq and the popular uprising against Syria's presence in Lebanon spurred Rice all but to declare that Washington was guiding the march of history. In a speech at the American University in Cairo, she criticized the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for failing to liberalize and said, "For 60 years, my country pursued stability at the expense of democracy in this region ... and we achieved neither. Now we are taking...
...Abbas is struggling to prevent clashes among rival factions from escalating into civil war. And then there's the trouble with Rice herself. She did herself few favors in Arab eyes by failing to restrain Israel's bombing campaign against Lebanon last summer. Her refusal to negotiate with Syria baffles diplomats in the region, who believe the U.S. is missing an opportunity to peel Damascus away from its alliance with Iran. And Rice's relationship with Abbas, in particular, is frosty. A senior Palestine Liberation Organization official who has sat in on meetings between the two says, "She acts like...
Apart from his desiring to re-establish a base in Lebanon, the fighting serves Arafat's purposes by obscuring the differences between his branch of the P.L.O. and the Palestinian groups based in Syria. Says Arafat's deputy Khalil Wazir, who is better known by his nom de guerre, Abu Jihad: "All fighters from all factions are fighting in the same trench for survival." In recent weeks Abu Jihad has met with rival Palestinian Leader George Habash in Moscow, Prague and Algiers in an effort to achieve a reconciliation among the Palestinian groups. The Soviet Union has strongly backed...
...Syria, on the other hand, regards the return of Arafat's P.L.O. as bad news. Beset by economic problems and rising Western opposition to Syrian-sponsored terrorism, Assad still wants to dominate both Lebanon and the Palestinians. In resisting Assad's efforts, Arafat is working to reunite the Palestinian factions, though he suspects that the Damascus-based groups may demand his ouster as the cost of reconciliation, and he is not ready to pay that price. Meanwhile, he flits restlessly around the Middle East, directing and planning the comeback of the P.L.O. Still, after four years in the political wilderness...
...United States and keep it at the forefront of the struggle against Israel. The anti-Syrian parliamentary majority, which forms the backbone of the government and includes the Sunnis, has seized upon the support of the West and its Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia to break Syria's grip on Lebanon. Damascus was forced to withdraw its troops from Lebnaon following the February 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri, a former premier, whose death many Lebanese blame on the Syrian regime...