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There are disagreements in the party on what decisions to make and compromises to give. In the party congress, I wasn't elected by 99 percent, like Ben Ali. Seventy percent voted for me. Maybe this 70 percent has gone down a bit because of the compromises we had to give, but I think the majority of the
the bigger fight against Assad, allowing his forces to gain the upper hand and make tactical gains in Homs, Damascus and even the rebel stronghold Aleppo. Emboldened, Assad and his henchmen, with the backing of Iran and Russia, have repeatedly reminded the opposition they will not go to Geneva to han
re demanding to be rid of him. The senior commanders of the armed forces cast him aside, and he joined his fellow despot, Tunisia's Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, who had fallen a month earlier. From Cairo, the awakening became a pan-Arab affair, catching fire in Yemen and Bahrain. As a monarchy, the latter
mpted even the Arab League, which has a history of overlooking the follies of its members, to suspend Damascus' membership. The fight still rages, Aleppo and Damascus have not risen, and the embattled ruler appears convinced that he can resist the laws of gravity. Unlike in Libya, no foreign rescue m
thousands times, boiled over in a month of demonstrations against Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. To the amazement of the Arab world, Mr. Ben Ali fled the country when the military declined to back him by brutally putting down the demonstrations. Spurred on by televised images and YouTube vide
Page: HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023462 →the massive security buildup to hold demonstrations in at least 20 cities, underlining its nationwide appeal. It also managed to show its presence in Aleppo, the country's second most populous city, which had remained relatively quiet until now. Also significant were the first demonstrations in the Druze
Page: HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_023469 →demonstrations sparked by the self-immolation of a twenty-six-year-old man who had been reduced to scratching out a living as a humble street vendor. Ben Ali, along with his hated wife and family, chose to go into exile before a single shot had been fired. In Egypt, if press reports are to be believed, the
Page: HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030081 →nto the city's southern outskirts, paramilitary groups were said to have massed in Alawi-populated northern suburbs. The city centers of Damascus and Aleppo, however, remained relatively quiet, as the government appeared to be organizing rallies of its own supporters, with activists claiming that efforts
Page: HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_030084 →Entities connected to both Ben Ali and Aleppo

Bashar al-Assad
PERSON
Barack Obama
PERSON
Lebanon
LOCATION
United States
LOCATION
Damascus
LOCATION
George W. Bush
PERSON
Tehran
LOCATION
Terje Rod-Larsen
PERSON
Tunisia
LOCATION
Hosni Mubarak
PERSON
Benjamin Netanyahu
PERSON
Yemen
LOCATION
Cairo
LOCATION
Bill Clinton
PERSON
Saddam Hussein
PERSON
Middle East
LOCATION
Bahrain
LOCATION
Jerusalem
LOCATION
Marc Rich
PERSON
Hillary Clinton
PERSON