Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05RABAT2500
2005-12-15 12:11:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Rabat
Cable title:  

DEMARCHE ON ASSASSINATION OF GIBRAN TUENI

Tags:  LE MO PGOV PREL PTER SY 
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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRB #2500 3491211
ZNY CCCCC ZZH (CCY ADDED CAPTION ADX6F4343/MSI1493 510)
O 151211Z DEC 05
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2297
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 002500 

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DEPT FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/LEA

C O R R E C T E D COPY - ADDED CAPTION
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2009
TAGS: LE MO PGOV PREL PTER SY
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE ON ASSASSINATION OF GIBRAN TUENI

REF: STATE 223709

Classified By: POL/C Timothy Lenderking for Reasons 1.4. (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 002500

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/LEA

C O R R E C T E D COPY - ADDED CAPTION
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/01/2009
TAGS: LE MO PGOV PREL PTER SY
SUBJECT: DEMARCHE ON ASSASSINATION OF GIBRAN TUENI

REF: STATE 223709

Classified By: POL/C Timothy Lenderking for Reasons 1.4. (b) and (d)


1. (C) Polcouns discussed reftel demarche with Hassan Hami,
MFA Arab Affairs Division Chief, on December 13, and sent
additional copies of the statements by the President and
Secretary Rice to MFA Acting Director of Arab Affairs

SIPDIS
Abdelghani Bellaaziri, who was unavailable. Hami noted that
he had seen the statements by the President and Secretary
Rice, but offered no comment on how the GOM would react.
Polcouns stressed that this was an act of terror, and the US
encouraged the GOM and other countries of the region to
condemn it.


2. (SBU) As of December 15, the GOM has made no official
comment on the assassination or the Mehlis report. Several
French and Arabic-language dailies carried the Tueni
assassination on the front pages on December 13, including
semi-official daily Le Matin, which described the Tueni
killed as "barbaric." Subsequent media reporting on the
killing is generally factual, drawing primarily from news
agencies AFP and Reuters.


3. (SBU) Editorialists are cautiously noting that "Syria may
be implicated" in the Tueni assassination, but most
commentators have so far generally refrained from pushing
that link strongly. The only opinion piece printed so far
appears in a December 15 editorial in left-leaning Bayane Al
Youm, affiliated with the Party of Progressive Socialism.
The editorial is an open letter to Druze leader Walid
Jumblatt, which castigates him for his alleged hypocrisy for
rushing to blame Syria "when Syria is being targeted by the
US, France, and Israel," and when "you were just recently one
of Syria's closest allies."


Bush