MEDIA REACTION ON THE DAMASCUS MEETING ON

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 AMMAN 007157

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SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON THE DAMASCUS MEETING ON
IRAQ


Summary

-- A lead story in all papers today, November 3,
focuses on the conclusion of the Damascus meeting,
which was held yesterday to discuss the security
situation in Iraq. The final communique stressed the
unity and sovereignty of Iraq and called for the
enhancement of a UN role. The communique also
condemned the "terrorist" bombings and called for an
end to the occupation and support for the Iraqi
Governing Council. While in Damascus, Foreign Minister
Muasher reportedly met with the Syrian President and
stressed the need to help Iraq in its crisis. Another
story dealt with the resistance in Iraq, reporting the
downing of a U.S. helicopter, which killed 15 U.S.
military men and injured 21 of them. Al-Arab Al-Yawm
quotes Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld as saying that
this was a sad day for Americans in "a long and
difficult war."

On the domestic front, Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez
began meetings with members of Parliament to discuss
the Government's program during the next stage.

A number of Editorial commentaries (November 2 - 3)
focus on the anticipated outcome of the Damascus
meeting.

Editorial Commentaries on the Damascus Meeting

-- "An Initiative From the Neighboring Countries"

Daily columnist Jamil Nimri write on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(11/02): "All efforts (during the Damascus meeting)
should not all focus on reaching a consensus over the
final communiqu, but should seek a real initiative
that constitutes an alternative to the current U.S.
policy. .. The U.S. forces should nowadays secure the
situation inside the cities and on the roads and at
Iraq's long borders with all countries. It is a
predicament!? With this mission impossible, this
arrogant administration can now begin to think of how
it is preparing to open new fronts with Iran and
Syria."

Nimri concludes: "Yes, the time is appropriate to
propose an alternative regional vision that is logical
and rational per the current crisis. There should also
be an exercise of a brave political dynamic that would
force the United States to deal with it. It is not
necessary that the initiative should be ready now, but
the neighboring countries could work on it. A
delegation of foreign ministers can be tasked with
visiting Iraq and meeting different Iraqi parties and
hold discussions with them. The delegation can also
meet with international parties in order to ripen the
vision of a proposal and a specific schedule that
would end the occupation and build an alternative
democratic Iraqi regime."

-- "What is Required is Support for Iraq and Not
Isolating It"

Commenting on the Damascus meeting, daily columnist
Bater Wardam writes on the op-ed page of center left,
influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (11/02): "The
security concern is not the only thing that will
prevail during the meeting. Indeed, what is important
is building sustainable relations with Iraq and
exerting more Arab effort to support the Iraqi people
in their efforts to get rid of the occupation,
fundamentalism, terrorism, bombings and repressive
regimes, and to establish their own independent state
- a state that every Iraqi deserves just like all
other peoples on earth. If this regional meeting
contributes to those efforts, then it would have
achieved real success. However, if this meeting
remains a hostage to the concerns and agendas of each
country, then Iraq will not benefit at all."
-- "The Meetings of the Pan Arab and Regional
Neighbors of Iraq"

Influential Arabic daily Al-Dustour (11/03)
editorializes: "What is noteworthy is that the
Damascus meetings came after the increasing rate of
escalation and resistance in Iraq. The Iraqi
resistance is escalating and its operations are taking
a new qualitative character of its own. Meanwhile,
Washington is procrastinating in its response to the
calls of the international community that stress on
expediting an end to the occupation and transferring
power in Iraq to the Iraqis and involving the United
Nations in everything that deals with Iraq's future."

The paper adds: "It is actually hoped that Washington
will find in the results of the Damascus meetings what
would help it and provide it with the ladder it needs
to come down from the top of the tree, which it had
climbed by waging a war against the will of the
International community and the United Nations and by
adopting policies that are unacceptable on both the
regional and international level."

Al-Dustour concludes: "It is really hoped that the
different Iraqi parties inside and outside the
governing council would find in the resolutions of the
Damascus meeting what would help it to move ahead in
rebuilding Iraqi institutions and to pass the
difficult interim stage that Iraq is going through by
expediting the preparation of a modern constitution
for the county and organizing free and honest
elections that would lead to a legitimate government
that represents the Iraqis."

Editorial Commentary on Iraq

-- "The Legitimacy of The Governing Council"

Questioning the legitimacy of the Iraqi Governing
Council, Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back
page of independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab
Al-Yawm (11/03): "When it reaches the point of
considering the occupation as a representative of the
Iraqis' hopes for democracy and freedom, why cannot
anyone who gets appointed by that occupation be
considered as a true representative and spokesperson
for the Iraqi people?! This is the democracy that
Bush's administration is seeking to impose on Iraq and
to force the neighboring countries to deal with. This
surely is a democracy that is totally different from
what this administration and the U.S. media had talked
about before the war."

Udwan adds: "In other words, the partnership project
that Colin Powell had announced on the eve of the
invasion and occupation of Iraq had turned from a
partnership with a democratic model in Iraq to a state
of U.S. partnership with the Arab regimes to design a
different fate for this country - a fate based on the
equation of imposing security through absolute
military force and resorting to appointed councils
that speak for the Iraqis and even putting policies
regarding their future, which violate international
law. Such policies include the privatization policy
and distributing tenders among companies owned by
Cheney and Condoleezza Rice without the presence of a
legitimate government in Baghdad and that of an
elected legislative council that issues laws and
legislatures."

Describing what the United States is implementing in
Iraq as "dictatorship in its worst form" and comparing
it to the British colonization of India during the
first half of the last century, Udwan concludes: "The
remaining hope is for the people of Iraq to succeed,
just as the Indian people did, in ousting the
occupation and establishing democracy while
maintaining the integrity of the Iraqi soil."
GNEHM