MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ AND MIDDLE EAST

UNCLAS AMMAN 001653

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR,
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN
USAID/ANE/MEA
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ AND MIDDLE EAST

Summary

-- The lead story in all papers today, March 18,
focuses on President Bush's address to the American
people yesterday and the 48-hour ultimatum for Saddam
to "leave or face war". A number of editorial
commentaries focus on the killing of U.S. peace
activist, Rachel Corey, crushed by an Israeli
bulldozer.

Editorial Commentary

-- "War it is"

Center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(03/18) editorializes: "Washington and London have
justified their political and military attack on Iraq
by claiming that the Iraqi regime has violated the
will of the international community. When Iraq did
the bidding of the international community and the
international community rejected war, the two allies
retracted their claims and instead talked about the
post-war era, claiming that a war on Iraq would be in
the best interest of Iraq and the world. It is as if
this region is destined to suffer from `double
standards', and then pay the price of the `reversed
standards' that Washington brought forth.. War it is,
then, which will pour oil on an already raging fire of
anger, frustration and desperation in the region."

-- "So the war may pass"

Columnist Ibrahim Absi writes on the op-ed page of
center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour
(03/18): "After losing hope of realizing a new
Security Council resolution that would unleash his
killing in Iraq, the American President resorted to
playing the Palestinian card, to hide behind it and to
portray his administration, which is so preoccupied
with preparations for war, as being interested in
resolving the Palestinian cause and establishing a
Palestinian state. It is a not so innocent attempt on
his part to combine war and peace on one level, the
Arab level, to convince the Arabs of the need to be
quiet while Iraq is being slaughtered in return for
establishing the promised Palestinian state. This is
not the first time that the Palestinian card was
played by the Americans to hide their shortcomings."

-- "A crazy moment"

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(03/18): "The people of this region and the world
view Bush's war as an inescapable plague. The ironic
issue here is that the American President wants to
make `the implementation of Security Council
resolutions' on Iraq the moral and ethical basis for
his imminent war. Bush's war may achieve its military
purpose. However, as of today, this war is going to
be a colonialist war, a war of occupation, and a war
of arrogant force against law and international
legitimacy. This is going to make `the American
occupation' and not `the American globalization' the
state that marks the relationship between the Arab and
Muslim people and America. And this is a state of
conflict."
GNEHM