Word: syria
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...government of collaborating with Israel to destroy Hizballah in this summer's war with the Jewish state, in part by trying to block supplies from reaching the battlefront of southern Lebanon. Siniora and his allies have responded by saying that Hizballah is acting on orders from Iran and Syria - from whom the group's military wing receives weapons and other aid - to destabilize Lebanon and mount a coup d'etat...
...problem is that Hizballah is also fighting for its survival and unlikely to back down. The group's patron, Syria, is on the run from a U.N. investigation that has implicated the Assad regime in the car bomb assassination last year of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, an event that led to the end of Syria's occupation of Lebanon. Moreover, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the summer war with Israel, also placed thousands of new U.N. soldiers in southern Lebanon, which had been uncontested Hizballah territory since the group drove Israel out in 2000. "Both sides...
...according to government ministers. This is on top of the reconstruction costs from the war with Israel, and from the 15-year civil war that ended in 1990, which together have put the country about $40 billion in debt - $9 billion of which comes due next year. But with Syria reportedly resupplying Hizballah with arms, and Israel threatening to return in greater force this spring, international investors may soon decide that the country's troubles have just begun. Which means that Lebanon could soon find itself as isolated as its prime minister...
That comment reflected the West Wing's exceeding bitterness about the report. Some of the pushback was substantive. The suggestions on how to engage directly with Iran and Syria--the parts resisted most unambiguously by the President--were surprisingly specific and prescriptive, not the platitudes the Administration had expected. Bush aides chafed at the patronizing directive "The President and the leadership of his national-security team should remain in close and frequent contact with the Iraqi leadership." Even some Democrats thought that Bush might have a point. "If you want to help the President," said Paul Goldman, a Democratic strategist...
...resume negotiations with the Palestinians in search of a political settlement to the conflict, instead simply endorsing the Israeli claim that "there is no Palestinian partner" and focusing largely on the question of Israeli security. And it has strongly backed and even encouraged Israel's refusal to talk to Syria about the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since...