Word: syrians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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After 19 months of bloodshed and brutality that have taken at least 37,000 lives, the civil war in Lebanon took a hopeful turn last week. Reason: Syrian troops, who only a week earlier had been combatants in the war, suddenly switched to peacemakers and took the road to Beirut-in order to enforce peace between the Christian and Moslem factions. With the tacit permission of other major Arab powers-notably Egypt and Saudi Arabia-Syria was on the verge of turning Lebanon into a de facto protectorate...
...When they arrived at the Moslem leftist stronghold of Aley, the highest-ranking commander of the Palestine Liberation Organization there leapt out of his Land Rover to greet his Syrian counterpart. They saluted formally, shook hands, embraced and finally kissed. Everyone was smiling. In the car on the way back to Beirut, the Palestinian commander said: 'I wish they had done this from the beginning, moving into both sides. I hope they never leave Lebanon.' The Syrians, however, were received coolly in Christian areas. At Jounieh civilians on the roadside looked grim, and two militiamen standing with their...
Mixed Feelings. The Syrian forces are the spearhead of a pan-Arab army that will eventually reach 30,000 men. Other Arab League nations, including the Sudan and Saudi Arabia, have contributed troops to the Lebanese peace-keeping force. But at summit meetings in Riyadh and Cairo (TIME, Nov. 8), an understanding was reached that the largest contingent of the "Arab Security Force" would be the Syrian brigades sent into Lebanon earlier this year by President Hafez Assad. Some Arab leaders had mixed feelings about so large a Syrian force in Lebanon; they were alarmed by the dominant Syrian presence...
...Syrians seem certain to remain in Lebanon much longer than that, even though Sarkis-in his first television address as President last week-spoke of their presence as "temporary." It will take at least two years, by some estimates, merely to rebuild Lebanon's fragmented army and internal security forces. In parts of Lebanon, the Syrians seem to have settled in for a long stay. In the fertile Bekaa Valley, Syrian currency circulates as easily as the Lebanese pound, and shopkeepers routinely do business in either. Arriving there from Damascus, TIME Correspondent Wilton Wynn stopped at a Lebanese checkpoint...
...obvious result of the Syrian-Palestinian clash in Lebanon has been the emergence of a completely autonomous PLO from Syrian influence. To a certain extent this is also true with respect to Russia. The Russians never actively supported the Palestinians during the war, and in a sense they even turned their backs on them. To the extent that their statelessness and relative weakening of political and military strength allows, the PLO has become a much more independent group and has therefore much greater flexibility of operation. The first signs of this flexibility are hints of a more pro-American stand...