Word: damascus
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AHMED ABU HAMED MOHIEDDIN, a Syrian wheat harvester, on the drought that has forced approximately 300,000 farmers to flee to the city of Damascus in search of work...
...idea came to Sadri in 2008, when he was studying Arabic in Damascus. He and his housemates - a group of Iraqi refugees - were watching Barack Obama, then a presidential candidate, debate his opponent John McCain on the war in Iraq. "It just seemed bizarre that this supposedly big democratic moment in the United States was missing such a vital component - the voice of the Iraqi people themselves," says Sadri. "National democracy is all very well if you're a strong country like the U.S. or the U.K. But if you live in a relatively weak state, you can have...
Ending a five-year diplomatic freeze, the White House nominated Robert Ford as ambassador to Syria on Feb. 16. The U.S. had removed its ambassador in 2005 to protest Damascus' possible involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. While the U.S. still disapproves of Syria's support for Lebanese militant group Hizballah, Ford's nomination indicates a renewed attempt at dialogue with the regime...
...only are Israeli-Palestinian peace talks largely moribund, but the Netanyahu government has dodged Syrian requests for direct talks, calling instead for indirect talks whose goal would be to agree to a cessation of hostilities rather than a return of the Golan Heights. That's a nonstarter for Damascus; no Syrian government could make peace without recovering the Syrian territory Israel occupies...
...have traded threats, with hard-line Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday threatening to topple the Assad regime. "When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power," said Lieberman. So as the U.S. moves to restore relations with Damascus, its first order of business may be crisis management: to calm rising Israeli-Syrian tensions and get both sides talking again...