Word: syrians
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...will certainly not encourage the Soviets to launch an all out war-U.S. nuclear retaliatory force prevents that-it could embolden the Russians in the Middle East. For example, the Soviet fleet might be tempted in a future crisis to blockade Israeli ports or protect the movements of Syrian and Egyptian warships from Israeli forces. What could be even more disruptive to East-West stability, Russia -despite détente-might dare to intervene in the turmoil in Yugoslavia that is expected to follow the death of the aging Josip Broz Tito. For the past three years NATO units...
Damascus' understandable determination to celebrate "the liberation of Quneitra" added more confusion to an already massive logistical problem. Thousands of Baath party faithful, as well as plain sightseers, trucked and bused toward Quneitra, their vehicles festooned with Syrian flags and homemade banners. A traffic jam several miles long stalled hundreds of official limousines, military vehicles, donkey carts and trucks piled with returning refugees, stoves, bedrolls and furniture. Red-bereted military police struggled to bring order out of chaos, occasionally shooting their AK-47 automatic rifles into the air to get attention. Reminders of the October fighting were plentiful. Occasionally...
...crowd got a look at what it was regaining. Once a community of 70,000 and the relatively prosperous center of a rich agricultural area, Quneitra lies shattered. Most of its buildings are knocked flat, as though by dynamite, or pockmarked by shellfire. Surrounded by rubble and flying dust, Syrian Prime Minister Mahmoud Ayoubi called the destruction "barbaric"-without referring to Syria's part in the fighting-and charged that much of the damage had occurred "not in war, but before Israel withdrew...
...refugees cheered up, however, when President Hafez Assad arrived dressed in military uniform. Surrounded by excited crowds who tossed flowers, cheered and chanted, "Welcome Assad, the liberator!", the President kissed the Syrian flag and raised it to the top of a makeshift flagpole...
...primarily symbolic. The new buffer zone that runs through the territory from north to south has deprived the town of its old strategic position as a major crossroads and access point to both northern Israel and the Damascus plain. Economically, the city will be a burden on the Syrian government for some time to come, although in the long run the agricultural potential of a fertile, well-watered area-good land for growing fruit, wheat, barley and beans-should contribute significantly to Syria's economy...