• الرئيس السوري حافظ الاسد في ذمة الله



Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, a

dominant figure of Middle East politics for three tumultuous decades, died on Saturday in Damascus, state television said.

Syria's parliament quickly amended the constitution to lower the age requirement to allow for the succession of his son Bashar, who is only 34 years old and a relative political novice. Members of parliament wept openly at the news of Assad's death at the age of 69.

The overwhelming majority of Syrians have known no other leader. Shops closed and residents of the capital hung black banners from apartment balconies, although the streets were calm with no sign of unusual security.

But the death of the veteran leader raised questions over the continuation of the internal stability Assad had imposed and prospects for resuming Israeli-Syrian peace talks -- only days after Syria has sounded accommodating.

A political source said the veteran leader died at 11 a.m. (0800 GMT). The source had no immediate word on the cause of death but Qatari television said it was a heart attack.

LAST WORDS REPORTED

The frail-looking Assad had suffered from heart problems and diabetes. Rumors of his death circulated repeatedly over the years but Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said he had spoken with Assad earlier in the day.

"His last words were: 'Our destiny is to build a better future for our countries' and then there was a silence and I knew something happened," Lahoud in a letter sent to Bashar and read out on state-run television in Lebanon.

His death came only a week before a key conference of the ruling Baath party that had been expected to elect his son as a member of the party's regional command. It had also been expected he would be named vice-president.

That left Bashar, despite taking on an increasingly powerful role -- especially as an advocate of economic reform and scourge of corruption -- without an official post at the time his father died.

But in a recent interview, Bashar said he had recommended many members of Syria's new cabinet, which took office on March 13.

His anti-corruption campaign had recently begun targeting high-ranking officials, whose connections to Assad had once been thought to guarantee immunity.

EX-PREMIER COMMITTED SUICIDE

The campaign included former Prime Minister Mahoud Zu'bi, who committed suicide last month after being sent for trial on corruption charges. Newspaper allegations also surfaced last week against Hikmat al-Shehabi, the former army chief who had been a long-time ally of the president.

Bashar has visited several Arab countries and France in the past two years but negotiations with Israel appeared to be firmly in the hands of Assad, who had tried for 33 years to regain the Golan Heights from Israel.

Assad's rule had been dominated by the Arab-Israeli conflict, first fighting Israeli in the 1967 and 1973 wars and since 1991 engaged in an off-and-on search for a negotiated peace.

"Assad did not want the political order in the Middle East dominated by Israel," Assad's biographer Patrick Seale said on CNN television. "He wanted a balance of power in order to keep the peace. He felt an imbalance causes war because the stronger partner always tries to impose his will on the weaker."

Peace talks were halted in January over Israel's insistence on retaining part of the occupied Golan Heights to ensure control of the Sea of Galilee. But Syria had repeated its hopes for peace talks last week.

World reaction to the death of the veteran leader focused on calls for the peace process to continue under a new leader. Diplomats have long said that a strong leader like Assad would be better positioned to make peace than a potentially weak successor.

ISRAEL VOWS TO SEEK PEACE

Israel, in its first reaction, said it would strive to forge a peace deal with whoever succeeded him.

"The government of Israel understands the grief of the Syrian people following of the death of President Assad," said a statement by Prime Minister Ehud Barak's office. "Israel worked in the past for a peace deal with Syria and will continue to work for this in the future with all future leadership."

President Clinton said he was saddened and would continue to work with Syria to achieve a comprehensive Middle East peace settlement.

"While we had our disagreements, I always respected him because I felt that he was open and straightforward with me and because I felt he meant it when he said he made a strategic choice for peace."

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who had been persona non grata for breaking ranks and starting his own peace process with Israel in 1993, declared three days of official mourning in Palestinian-run areas. Damascus hosts factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization opposed to Arafat's peace negotiations with Israel.

In Lebanon, which has been dominated by Syria since Assad sent troops there in 1976 in a futile effort to end the 1975-90 civil war, a seven-day mourning period was declared.

LEBANESE MARCH IN MOURNING

Although a Lebanese newspaper called only two days ago for Syrian troops to go home, more than 1,000 people marched down a main street in Beirut on Saturday evening, chanting: "Assad is not dead! He is still alive with us!"

Assad, while defeated on the battlefield during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, had fought back relentlessly through less conventional means. The final Israel troops pulled out only last month, hounded by the Hizbollah guerrillas whom Assad had backed since their formation.


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ABUMISHARI

[هذه الرسالة عدلت بواسطة HANAB (عدلت في 10-06-2000).]