Word: syrians
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...months, signs of a power struggle within the government of Syrian President Hafez Assad swirled like so many dust devils around Damascus, the capital. Last week the intrigue blossomed anew. Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, in an interview published in the West German magazine Der Spiegel, declared that Assad's younger brother Rifaat, one of Syria's three Vice Presidents, is "persona non grata forever." If Rifaat had not gone into exile in Geneva in June, Tlas added, "the army would have struck...
...economic aid earmarked for Morocco in fiscal 1985. French President François Mitterrand sent a minister to Algeria and another to Chad; he himself dashed off to Rabat to see whether the new alliance could be of help in settling French differences with Libya in Chad. Even Syrian President Hafez Assad, who has not left his country since a serious heart attack ten months ago, traveled to Tripoli for what was reportedly a stormy confrontation with Gaddafi...
...civilian clothes exchanged heated words with a soldier at one of the checkpoints on the demilitarized "green line" that divides Beirut. The militiaman then jumped into his car and sped away. A trivial enough incident, but it touched off the worst fighting in Lebanon's capital since the Syrian-backed peace plan was adopted July 4. In the four hours of fighting that followed, the largely Christian Fifth Brigade in the east traded fire with the mostly Muslim Sixth Brigade in the west. Five people were wounded. The event revived fears that the army is dangerously divided along religious...
...months, relative calm had settled over Lebanon under a peace plan adopted by its warring factions and backed by nearby Syria. The peace fell apart last week. In the northern seaport of Tripoli, a smoldering feud between a fundamentalist Sunni Muslim group known as Tawheed and the pro-Syrian Arab Democratic Party, whose militiamen are sometimes called the Pink Panthers because of their raspberry-colored fatigues, erupted in the worst violence so far this year. Before a truce was called at week's end, at least 100 people had been killed and more than 200 wounded, most of them...
...Reagan Administration also recognized the larger reality of Syrian influence in Lebanon last week. Testifying before a House subcommittee, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy declared that Syria has been "a helpful player" in healing the rifts among Lebanon's combative factions. That assessment was markedly different from what U.S. officials were saying about the regime of Syrian President Hafez Assad as recently as two months ago, when 261 U.S. Marines were still deployed in Lebanon. But "times have changed," noted Murphy, a former Ambassador to Damascus. Syria, he explained, had pursued a policy of confrontation with...