DAMASCUS -- Fadil Shururu, chief political officer of Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, has come a long way since I first met him 35 years ago in Jordan's Ghor Valley, seedbed of the newborn guerrilla movement that was to liberate the whole of the Palestinian homeland lost to Israel in 1948. The Ba'athist Syrian regime, also in its fire-breathing youth, was the group's militant Arab backer.
Now, Shururu could not even receive me in his own office -- he came to my hotel instead -- as the PFLP is one of four Palestinian "terrorist" organizations whose Damascus-based branch the United States has called on Syria to shut down. In the case of the militarily inactive PFLP, Syrian acquiescence seems to have been cosmetic at most.
"But mark my words," said Shururu, "the time is coming when (U.S. President George W.) Bush will need (Syrian President) Bashar Assad more than Bashar needs him."