Syria: Right with the Crowd

For months Syria's militantly leftist regime has protested the steady march to political moderation in the Arab world. Last week Damascus itself joined the parade.

The shift grew out of a split in Syria's ruling Pan-Arab Baath Party between General Salah Jadid, leader of a powerful clique of pro-Peking officers, and Strongman General Amin Hafez, top dog in Syria since 1963. At the Casablanca conference of Arab leaders last September, Hafez pledged Syria to an agreement not to meddle in other states' internal affairs. Objecting, the Jadid group blamed a "right-wing reactionism" for...

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