Word: syria
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Iraq's civil war has made more than 2 million Iraqis refugees in foreign lands. The vast majority are stuck in limbo in neighboring Syria and Jordan, not allowed to work, unwilling to go home and denied visas to go anywhere else. U.S. and Iraqi officials say some of those refugees have begun returning home, spurred by the reduction in terrorist attacks and sectarian violence, especially in Baghdad. But that amounts to a small trickle compared with the numbers still seeking a way out. Though 66,000 Iraqis have applied for asylum, just 14,000 of them have been granted...
...quickly became a proxy battle between regional and Cold War rivals. While the U.S. Marines might have seen their mission as keeping the peace, some Lebanese and their regional sponsors perceived the American troops as part of a power play. Stability was finally restored when Washington green-lighted Syria's heavy-handed enforcement of the peace...
...Today, the United States is once again ensnared in an internal Lebanese political struggle that has become a proxy fight between regional powers, this time pitching the U.S. and Israel against Syria and Iran. Washington has certainly made some powerful enemies in the course of Lebanon's recent upheavals: it used its influence in the U.N. Security Council to help expel Syrian troops from Lebanon in 2005, backed Israel in the 2006 summer war against Hizballah, supported the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in the face of massive opposition demonstrations, and accused Syria of masterminding the string of bombings...
...Clearly, Sarkozy is annoyed and feels he has been burned by the Syrians, which means I don't think we will see any European country engaging Syria for some time," said Andrew Tabler, the Damascus-based editor of Syria Today magazine...
...this will affect Syria in the weeks and months to come remains to be seen, but it does mean that with the absence of an effective mediator, Lebanon's political woes are unlikely to end anytime soon...