MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ/IRAN AND UAE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 004356 SIPDIS 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 LONDON FOR MCKUNE 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: ABU DHABI 00004356 002 OF 002 "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