MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ/IRAN AND UAE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 004356

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SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B;
RRU-NEA
IIP/G/NEA-SA
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD
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E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ/IRAN AND UAE


1. Summary: A UAE female columnist in "Al-Bayan" confirms that it
is time for the Bush administration to hear from Arabs that the
chaos which is part of Bush's policies is stupid and foolish,
turning the region into bloody fields. "Al-Khaleej" ran a
front-page editorial denouncing the Iranian government for not
dealing directly with the Gulf countries and that such Iranian
statements do not serve the future. A UAE female columnist in
"Al-Bayan" is critical U.S. policies in the region. End Summary.


2. A UAE female columnist, Aisha Sultan, wrote in an 11/26 op-ed in
Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 85,000):

"Today in Iraq, there is more than one strife or dissension. Today,
in Iraq, there is more than one beneficiary; there are militias and
legalized death squads. It is not just an issue of security chaos
as some like to describe nor the creative chaos the United States
wants to have. The issue is bigger than that. It is a huge plot
fore-planned in the private and public corridors of study centers
affiliated with the Pentagon, the White House and Zionist groups. A
UAE female student was right to stand up in one of the forums
recently held in Abu Dhabi to direct these harsh words against
former American President George Bush Sr. She correctly described
the policies generated by his son as anti-Arab policies and stated
that the Arabs do not like Bush and his policies. On the other
hand, Senior Bush was very ignorant of the truth when he told her
that he was confident in his son's political options and that his
policies were correct. Today, all of us in the Arab world need to
raise this same voice in the face of the United States. We must say
that Bush's policies are not correct and a major calamity for which
we are all paying the price for whether we liked it or not. The
time has come for the United States to hear that and submit to it...
American policies have transformed the region into fields of
fire gated with blood and body parts. This is a horrifying reality.
We do not know why the United States insists on dragging us into it
as if we were some creature that it wanted to save itself from. It
is like what Hitler had planned when he wanted to get rid of the
Jews! It is time for the Americans to hear us loud and clear that
"Your policies do not appeal to us and do not secure either your or
our interests!"



3. Under the headline "Iran's ignored dialog", Sharjah-based
Pan-Arab daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000) wrote an unsigned
front-page 11/27 editorial:

"The Arabs of the Gulf have a problem with Iran's foreign policy
which tries to establish "dialog" with everyone in the world but
does not start a dialog or build trust with its neighboring Arabs in
the Gulf. Tehran negotiates with the east and west, takes leading
roles in the dialog between civilizations and religions, deals with
the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, and expands its influence in
more than one place in a tense Arab environment, yet it (Tehran)
deals with the Arabs of the Gulf in a cold diplomacy... Tehran
forgets that the Gulf is its civilization and economic reservoir.
It deliberately tries to weaken trust and ignores the advice of the
Arabs of the Gulf in general and the UAE in particular on their
nuclear ambitions and Iran's needs to build trust, collective
security, and mutual cooperation. Three and a half decades have
passed and the three UAE islands are still occupied. The UAE
continues to call Iran for serious dialog. Yet, the Iranian clock
seems to be not working when it comes to [issues related to] the
Arabs of the Gulf. It is unfortunate that a semi official Iranian
discourse comes out of Iran angry and extremely superior in nature.
It does not try to open doors for dialog but rather increases the
ambiguous scene in the Gulf. The most recent of this discourse is
the statement made by Iran's Foreign Affairs' spokesperson about
anti-Iran activities in the UAE. Isn't this part of the media
nonsense? Such statements increase the crisis in the region. These
statements cannot work to cover for Iran's running away from
answering difficult questions in Iraq and else where... Making the
situation tense by these statements does not help the present nor
does it build a future of mutual security and cooperation. Dialog
with the Gulf states (which Iran does not do) is the only safe
way."


4. A UAE female Professor, Dr. Muna Al-Bahar, wrote an 11/27 op-ed
in Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 85,000) wrote:


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"While I was reading the speech of Bush the father reviewed by most
local newspapers, my expectations were not high. However, his words
made me reach to utmost certainty that Bush does not greatly differ
in the vision and way of thinking from his father. As the saying
goes: Like father, like son. Because while the United States of
America, the primary engine of extremism and terrorism in the world,
practices its unfair foreign policies, Father Bush on the other hand
speaks of peace and says in a speech he delivered at the conference
that they as leaders of the United States will not allow the voices
of deviant extremism to stand in the way of achieving the goals and
aspirations of the peace which they are aiming for. It is as if
Bush is far away from what is happening around him in the world, or
as if he does not want to recognize what the foreign policy is
reaping... He said "My son is honest and works hard for world
peace." Who in the world would believe such illogical statements?
Even the most ignorant people among us who are not involved in the
political life do not buy that. How is Iraq today after the
invasion and occupation in a better situation? Iraq today, by all
standards, is a devastated country facing a huge catastrophe whose
exit is not easy... Where is the free life they were promised?
Where are the basic services which were enjoyed by the Iraqis prior
the invasion? Where are the employment opportunities and the decent
lives which were before at least somewhat available to a regular
Iraqi? Where is the democracy promised to the Iraqis? Nearly 65%
of them prefer the current and rapid withdrawal of the foreign
troops, and more than 70% of American soldiers believe they should
leave Iraq within a year, and still you hear the American President,
in his last press conference, say: "We certainly are achieving
victory in Iraq" and that the Iraqi people have more freedom and are
living a prosperous life. We should ask ourselves: "What is the
American president seeing or knowing, of which Iraqi people or the
world following the events of Iraq cannot see? There is no answer
to this question. As a matter of fact, the president sees only the
profits made by American oil companies through the exploitation of
the oil resources of Iraq. This by law has never happened anywhere;
not in the oil-rich Arab countries or even other oil-rich countries,
since there is no oil-rich state that would give full authority for
private foreign companies over its most important resource while
waiving the interests of its people... Accordingly, if this is what
Bush is thinking when he speaks of unprecedented victory then
obviously he already had achieved it and perhaps this explains why
he is seduced to repeat this experiment in Iran which owns the third
largest oil reserves in the world."

QUINN














MR 27 Nov 2006 UNCLASSIFIED