Epstein Secrets

simply Hafez al-Assad's son. David W. Lesch, a professor of Middle East history at Trinity University, is the author of "The New Lion of Damascus: Bashar al- Asad and Modern Syria." SONY_GM_00078427 JPM-SDNY-00001554 EFTA_00188894 Confidential Treatment Requested by JPMorgan Chase EFTA01301050 9

conference at 6 pm on Thursday evening, in response to violent demonstrations in the southern town of Daraa near the border with Jordan. President Bashar al-Assad, she stressed, had given strict orders not to fire at demonstrators with live ammunition - and expressed his sorrow for the senseless loss of life

minority of the Alawite sect is Syria's equivalent to Saddam Hussein's clan of Tikriti Sunnis, both having ruled cruelly and bloodily. Indeed, the Assads have nursed a particular grudge against the Palestinians, almost all of them. They had little truck with Arafat and sided in the intra-Palestinian

94 Confidential Treatment Requested by JPMorgan Chase EFTA01301050 9 Article 3. Brookings The Syrian Rift Itamar Rabinovich March 27, 2011 - Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship is facing its biggest crisis since he inherited his father's position in June 2000. Not long ago, in a long, thrilling interview with

ord. Obama tried his luck with Assad as, forgive the recollection, he also did with Dr. Ahmadinejad. The president then followed the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, in his royal bankrolling effort to lure the eye doctor away from Nasrallah. Even the dynast's billions couldn't do the trick. Barack Obama will no

monitors of committing massive atrocities against its civilian population. The Obama administration, backed by Western alies, accuses the regime of Bashar al-Assad of launching a large-scale chemical weapons attack on August 21 that mocked Obama's "red line" rhetoric and finally elicited a White House threat o

e its relevance in an age of WMD. On Syria, the president will likely cite the thorough UN inspectors report as providing indisputable evidence of Assad's use of chemical weapons (CW). Echoing the marker laid down by Secretary of State John Kerry, he will demand that the UNSC pass a robust resoluti

y, their anxiety has fed existing resentment toward the regime, which has been deadlocked over necessary political and economic reforms proposed by King Abdullah. So, Jordan desperately needs a Palestinian state in order to preserve its own "Jordanianness"—an issue that is not, in the end, of much concern t

elections; and 6. Abolition of Article 8 of the constitution, which stipulates that the Baath Party is by law the ruling party in Syria. President Assad's speech to Parliament on March 31st was disappointing to many, who were expecting the speech to be a declaration of a new era of genuine reforms. H

, the less likely the interference in Bahraini domestic affairs. Saudi Arabia Sheikh Saleh Abdullah Al-Fozan, a high-ranking Saudi cleric, advised King Abdullah to release political prisoners, who have mostly been sentenced without trials, or risk the issue's becoming a time-bomb. Municipal elections have b