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Under Assad's Gaze, His EneD1Ïes' EneD1Ïes Wait
By William E. Schmidt
NftV York Tima Soviœ
DAMASCUS - For all the talk
of peace with Israel and a new and
more open relationship with the
West, this ancient capital remains a
city of shadows and secrets, not
only for Palestinian guerrilla organizations
but also for both exiled
Arab leaders and rebellious~.
They work from offices on the
side streets of Damascus, where silent
men keep constant watch.
The Syrian capital is home to 10
hard-line Palestinian groups, most
of them driven from Beirut about a
decade ago, as well as to Kurdish
nationalists and Baghdad intellectuals
who oppose the Iraqi president,
Saddam Husaein, and Shiite
Muslims who are foes of the Saudi
government
For the last seven yeats, the capital
has also provided refuge for Ali
Nasser Mohammed Hassani, the
former president of South Yemen,
who fled to Damascus after he was
deposed by hard-line Marxists in
1986, and who now often holds
court at a restaurant in the city's
fashionable Shaalan neighborhood.
To some in the West, tolerance
by Damascus for guerrilla groups
and political plotters with whom it
is sympathetic is evidence that Syr_
ia is still sUPJl