Word: syrian
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Administration is trying something similar with another traditional Middle Eastern irritant, Syria. Under George W. Bush, Syria got the cold-war treatment as well: rhetorical belligerence, veiled military threats, a withdrawal of the U.S. ambassador. Under Obama, by contrast, Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been to Damascus, the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister has been to Washington, and the rhetoric has become noticeably less hostile...
...content with that, the opposition pushed for control of Lebanon's telecommunications system, which would give Hizballah added operational security from Israeli intelligence - but could also help it hamper the activities of the U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri. That tribunal has implicated Syrian officials in the killing, and much of its evidence comes from telephone records. Though Hizballah has denied wanting to derail the investigation, such pressure on its patron could disrupt the flow of weapons over the Syrian border to the Shi'ite group's arsenal. (Read a brief history of Hizballah...
...media also suggest that Saudi Arabia was dismayed that Hariri's Future movement, which had been building a militia with Saudi money, was so easily routed by Hizballah in the May 2008 street fights. Last month, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah traveled to Damascus for a state visit with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, in part to bury the hatchet over Lebanon. Even Hariri's coalition is breaking apart. Walid Jumblatt, the leader of Lebanon's Druze community and one of the architects of the anti-Syrian movement (he once told a Washington audience that America should send car bombs...
...government's caving in to Hizballah and Syria will have its consequences: most importantly it's a message to those in Lebanon - and the wider Middle East - who put their trust in the U.S. and political reform that guns are still more powerful than votes. Watching the Syrian-backed opposition hamstring the investigation into his father's murder will have been a bitter pill for Hariri and his followers to swallow. When the time comes to settle scores, they may be more likely to choose bullets rather than ballots...
...network was broken up last December when Belgian police rounded up 14 suspected members ahead of what authorities feared was a planned suicide bombing of a Brussels meeting of European Union leaders. Then, in May, two French extremists from the group were arrested entering Italy with five Palestinian and Syrian aliens whom French authorities said were to be used as suicide bombers in European strikes. (Read "Europe Pieces Together Terrorism Puzzle...