In December 1986 Syrian officers summoned mayors, village heads and teachers from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley to Baalbek and told them that drug cultivation was banned indefinitely. Syrian troops had tolerated cannabis since they entered the valley in 1976 but had discouraged poppies; by April 1987 visitors found the drug fields neglected and opium hard to obtain. The move was read as an attempt to clean Syria's image in the West, and a Lebanese militia source claimed Washington had paid Damascus $250 million, a claim the Monitor could not confirm.[1]
Listed for context. No score change is recorded for Syria here.
References
- The Christian Science Monitor — Syria gets tough on Lebanon's drug trade (16 April 1987)Baalbek meeting in December, Syrian entry into the Bekaa in 1976, fields neglected by April 1987, unconfirmed $250 million claimarchived
Checked. The date and the event were compared with a source that was read.