Word: syrian
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...gulf oil despite the high insurance rates that must be paid by the ships' owners. Moreover, the pipes can suddenly be shut down by war, especially if the routes cross national borders. Saudi Arabia's route through Lebanon has been closed since 1983, and Baghdad's pipe to the Syrian coast was shut down soon after the Iran-Iraq conflict began in 1980. In addition, pipelines remain vulnerable to sabotage and attack by planes or missiles...
Tehran's ties with Hizballah have put it into conflict with its friends as well. Though Syria depends on Iran for much of its oil, relations between the two countries have deteriorated recently over events in Lebanon. Hizballah fought Syria's forces after Syrian President Hafez Assad sent troops into Beirut last February to restore law-and-order. Now Hizballah-set bombs explode almost nightly near Syrian military posts in the Lebanese capital. Hizballah's most serious provocation came in June, when the group kidnaped U.S. Journalist Charles Glass near a Syrian checkpoint that was supposedly guarding the area...
Flying into Damascus last week without fanfare or press conference, Vernon Walters, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, held what he called "very useful, very fruitful, very cordial" meetings with Syrian President Hafez Assad. It was a remarkable if discreet achievement after years of deep enmity between the two countries, which culminated in last year's recall of U.S. Ambassador William Eagleton after an attempt by Syrian-backed terrorists to blow up an El Al flight in Britain. Though U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon John Kelly says it is "premature to talk about rapprochement between the U.S. and Syria," Washington...
...most encouraging sign of Syrian moderation came in early June, when Assad closed down the Damascus offices of Abu Nidal, the notorious Palestinian terrorist-for-hire. Abu Nidal, who received attention in last week's Iran- contra hearings for his threats against Lieut. Colonel Oliver North, is suspected of masterminding the Rome and Vienna airport massacres that killed 19 in December 1985. Moreover, while still railing against Israel, Syrian radio now broadcasts stinging criticisms of terrorist acts. One statement specifically condemned taking "innocents and journalists" hostage, an obvious reference to last month's kidnaping of former ABC Correspondent Charles Glass...
...With 7,500 Syrian troops in West Beirut and an additional 25,000 in north and east Lebanon, Assad has been embarrassed by Glass's kidnaping. Assad's dilemma: fighting the Beirut terrorists would, in effect, mean confronting their chief patron, Iran, which Damascus supports in its protracted war with Iraq. According to Israeli sources, when Syrian Army General Ghazi Kenaan led his troops into Beirut in February, he wanted to curb the power of Hizballah, the pro-Iranian Shi'ite group based in the Lebanese capital that is believed to hold most of the 24 foreign hostages, including nine...