MIDDLE EAST: Convention In Damascus

A week of frenzied diplomacy

The Syrian capital of Damascus was the convention center of the Arab world last week. On hand were the leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization, assembled for the first meeting of their National Council in almost two years. Hardly had those meetings opened when reports began to circulate throughout the city that the long feuding governments of Syrian President Hafez Assad and Iraqi President Ahmed Hassan Bakr were about to take a tentative step toward merger. With all that going on, Jordan's King Hussein abruptly decided he had better fly to Damascus too to get...

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