An Interview with Hafez Assad

Despite frequent accusations in the West--and the Hindawi trial in London--Syria has consistently denied links to international terrorism. President Hafez Assad firmly reiterated that denial in an interview in Damascus with a group of TIME journalists, including Time Inc. Editor in Chief Henry Grunwald, Assistant Managing Editor Richard Duncan, International Editor Karsten Prager and Middle East Bureau Chief Dean Fischer. Assad not only rejected allegations of a Syrian terror connection but as usual accused Israel of terrorist activity and of being responsible for Middle East tensions in general. Though he offered no evidence, Assad broached his own elaborate theory of an...