Word: syrians
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...message U.S. Special Envoy Robert McFarlane is expected to carry to Syria on his first swing through the region this week, meeting with Jordan's King Hussein and Saudi Arabia's King Fahd, among others. There is no indication, however, that the argument will change Syrian President Hafez Assad's mind...
Gemayel had other things to worry about last week. A new Syrian-backed coalition, the National Salvation Front, threatened to split Lebanon's 4 million people far more effectively than any foreign forces could. The front's three leaders represent the major religious opponents of Gemayel's Christian Phalange. As leader of the Druze, an esoteric, secretive religious sect that emerged in the 11th century as an offshoot of Islam, Walid Jumblatt, 34, speaks for about 250,000 Lebanese. Rashid Karami, 62, who served as Prime Minister during the 1960s and still retains a power base...
...alliance hopes to administer the parts of northern and eastern Lebanon that are now under the control of the Syrian army. Gemayel responded to the new challenge by calling the opposition front a "soap bubble" and accusing the Druze chieftain of selling out to the Syrians. Franjieh, on the other hand, hinted that the front would be willing to negotiate with the government. "If the regime resorts to democracy in dealing with us, we shall do the same," he declared. "But if it resorts to nondemocratic methods, then the future is in God's hands...
...officials in Washington could legitimately disagree. Last May Secretary of State George Shultz negotiated a Lebanese-Israeli accord providing for the withdrawal of Israel's 36,000 troops from Lebanon on the condition that Syria also pulled out its 60,000 men. But Syrian President Hafez Assad, who has received some $3.5 billion worth of arms from the Soviet Union over the past year, has refused to go along with the arrangement...
...Beirut buried its latest dead, Lebanese authorities and Western diplomats suspected that the most recent attacks on the Christian quarters were the work not only of Druze militiamen but of their Syrian backers. In retaliation, perhaps, the Druze-owned Summerland Hotel was bombed last week, killing six and injuring 20. By striking at the hotel, the bombers attacked a symbol of Beirut's will to endure; Israeli shells nearly wrecked the complex during last year's war, but Owner Raja Saab rebuilt it in five months at a cost of $10 million. The hotel and its beach club...