Word: syrian
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...more than two years, Lebanon's so-called Cedar Revolutionaries - the country's anti-Syrian politicians - have helped lead the Bush Administration's charge to promote democracy and curb anti-Western extremism in the Middle East. Since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which sparked the anti-Syrian protests in Beirut - dubbed by Washington as the Cedar Revolution - and ended three decades of Syrian domination, the U.S. has backed the pro-Western government in Lebanon in hopes of denying Syria (and Iran) influence in the country...
...White House has begun signaling a new approach to Syrian relations - for starters, it invited Syria to last week's Annapolis peace conference to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. And Washington's overtures to Damascus, which the U.S. has repeatedly slammed for sponsoring terrorism and meddling in Lebanon and Iraq, have left pro-Western Lebanese leaders worried about being "sold out" as part of a broader U.S.-Syrian deal to stabilize the region...
Lebanon has entered a perilous and unprecedented constitutional vacuum following the departure midnight Friday of the pro-Syrian president, Emile Lahoud, with no elected successor. The two rival factions - the Western-backed March 14 block, which holds a thin parliamentary majority, and the pro-Syrian opposition, spearheaded by the militant Shi'ite Hizballah - are locked in a tense standoff, both waiting for the other to make the first move...
...Some analysts here believe that the Lebanese impasse could be broken if Syria is given a prominent role at the forthcoming peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, to revive Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Syria, which backs the Lebanese opposition, says it will only participate in the conference if the Golan Heights, Syrian territory occupied by Israel since 1967, is included on the agenda. If Syria's demand is met, Damascus could use its influence over the opposition to accept a compromise on the Lebanese presidency...
...heart of the emerging impasse between the anti-Syrian "March 14" block, which forms the backbone of the government, and the pro-Syrian opposition was the fate of Hizballah's formidable military wing. The March 14 block seeks Hizballah's disarmament in line with U.N. resolutions. It fears that Hizballah's weapons are really intended to serve its patron Iran, thus dragging Lebanon into the frontline of the power struggle between Washington and Tehran over the latter's nuclear ambitions. Hizballah maintains that its weapons are the only means of deterring Israeli aggression against Lebanon and that calls...