Word: syria
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...agreement doesn't mean Lebanon is out of the woods. For real stability to take root, the foreign countries fighting for regional supremacy in the cold war for the Middle East will have to stop using Lebanon as a battlefield. On the one hand, Syria could use Hizballah's political and military victory to work its way back into dominance over Lebanon, which Syria occupied until 2005. Hizballah's strengthened government role will help Syria get the new Lebanese government to scupper plans for a U.N. tribunal to investigate the assassinations of a series of anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians...
...Israel's main interest in dialogue with Syria lies in reining in the Lebanese Shi'ite militia Hizballah, and also the Palestinian Hamas movement, both implacable enemies of Israel that enjoy extensive Syrian patronage. The Jewish State's other objective: to limit the malign influence of Syria's key ally, Iran...
News that Israel has for months been secretly negotiating with Syria has sent a frisson of excitement through the Middle East - overshadowing, at least momentarily, the new political deal in Beirut. The standoff between Syria and Israel has historically been much more intractable than that between Lebanon's warring factions, so any exchange between Damascus and Jerusalem that doesn't involve invective or military ordnance deserves to hog the headlines...
...details of the talks, brokered by Turkey, have yet been made public, but it's a fair guess that the negotiators have spent a great deal of time discussing the Golan Heights - the rocky escarpment Israel seized from Syria in 1967, the return of which is Syria's precondition for peace with Israel...
...turn again. Sitting in his garden terrace with a few family members and loyal retainers, Jumblatt said that he has spoken with the U.S. embassy to deliver his grim assessment. "The U.S. has failed in Lebanon," he said. "We have to wait and see the new rules which Hizballah, Syria and Iran will set. They can do what they want...