SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT SWORN IN, TOUTED AS

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAMASCUS 001359

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR ZEYA, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2016
TAGS: PINR PGOV SY
SUBJECT: SECOND VICE-PRESIDENT SWORN IN, TOUTED AS
TOP-RANKING FEMALE ARAB GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Stephen A. Seche for reasons
1.4(b)/(d)


1. (C) SUMMARY: According to press reports, President Bashar
al-Asad swore in Dr. Najah al-Attar as vice-president on
March 23. Attar, a nominal political independent with a long
career in senior positions in the regime of Hafiz al-Asad,
will be responsible for cultural affairs. Press reports tout
Attar as the top-ranking female official in the Arab world.
She came out of semi-retirement to assume the position. Her
appointment has drawn attention for its timing, coming in the
wake of the recent formation of the National Salvation Front
(NSF) by former VP Abdelhalim Khaddam and the Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood, which her brother Issam headed in the 1950s and
60s. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Vice-President Dr. Najah al-Attar is a Sunni Muslim
born to a prominent Damascene family in 1933. In 1976, Attar
became Syria's first female minister upon her appointment as
Minster of Culture and National Guidance. During the 1980s,
she also served as government spokesperson. She remained
Minister of Culture until 2000, during which time a number of
cultural institutions like the National Symphonic Orchestra
were founded and the construction of the Syrian Opera House
began. She has not held a high-level position since 2000.


3. (C) A SARG RIPOSTE TO KHADDAM-BAYANOUNI? Attar's
appointment has drawn attention for its timing, coming in the
wake of the recent formation of the National Salvation Front
(NSF) by former VP Abdelhalim Khaddam and the Syrian Muslim
Brotherhood, which her brother Issam headed in the 1950s and
60s. (He has been in exile in Germany since 1963). While he
has reportedly retired from active politics, human rights
lawyer and Islamist sympathizer Haithem al-Maleh, who
maintains active contact with Attar, reported that he does in
fact participate in at least some political discussions.
Maleh recently cited a telephone discussion with Attar
regarding the NSF, during which Maleh claimed Attar had
expressed concerns about the MB's new partnership with
Khaddam. Some observers have viewed the Attar appointment as
Asad's attempt to respond to the formation of the
Khaddam-Bayanouni NSF in Brussels.


4. (C) Others have dismissed any connection between the
appointment and the NSF formation, noting that Attar has had
a long career of public service to the Ba'th-led regime,
throughout her brother's dissident career. Al-Hayat
journalist Ibrahim Hamidi told Poloff that the appointment
was a harsh gesture towards the MB, signaling them that the
SARG does not need them and that it is able to co-opt even
their own family members. On a separate issue, Hamidi and
others also noted that Attar enjoys a good reputation among
some opposition figures whom she employed in the Ministry of
Culture when they encountered difficulty securing employment
elsewhere.


5. (C) A SIGN OF ASAD'S INSISTENCE ON COMPETENCE? Attar's
appointment is also being publicly touted as a sign of the
improving status of Syrian women, with Syrian press reports
touting Attar as the top-ranking female official in the Arab
world. Observers also noted that the appointment is
emblematic of President Bashar al-Asad's meritocratic
appointments of non-Ba'th Party members. Al-Safir
correspondent Ziad Haider told Charge that Asad was
determined to get more competent leadership for the Ministry
of Culture after what he described as a series of lackluster
successors to Attar, culminating in the poorly organized
campaign celebrating "Aleppo, Islamic Culture Capital for
2005." According to Haider, Asad is convinced that Syria has
a tremendously rich cultural heritage (with tourist
potential) which does not receive the prominence it deserves.
He also noted that Asad had not originally planned to
appoint any other vice presidents when he appointed former FM
Shara'a as VP in charge of foreign policy and media affairs.


6. (C) COMMENT: It is difficult to believe that the
appointment of a septuagenarian bureaucrat to take on the
relatively unimportant cultural affairs portfolio can bear as
much symbolic weight as the press and some of our Syrian
contacts have sought to give it. Nonetheless, the timing is
interesting and indicates that the SARG leadership may have
been trying, however feebly, to use the appointment to send
out a cluster of unclear messages on the Muslim Brothers, the
role of women, and the need for competence in government.
None of these messages conveyed by the Attar appointment is
likely to have much of a shelf life, but the effort is
emblematic of the "too little, too late, too timid" efforts

this regime repeatedly makes to redress problems it must
confront but cannot really deal with in any serious way.


7. (U) ADDITIONAL BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION: Attar comes from
prominent Damascene family. Her father was a nationalist
leader who took part in the 1925-1927 revolt against the
French Mandate. Her physician husband, Dr. Majed al-Azmeh,
belongs to an equally prominent Damascene family. Attar
graduated from Damascus University in 1954, and later
completed graduate and postgraduate degrees in Arabic
literature from the University of Edinburgh in the UK. She
began her career as a schoolteacher in Damascus. She then
moved to the Ministry of Culture in 1962, eventually being
named Minister in 1976. Following her 2000 dismissal from
the cabinet, Attar became the director of the Center for the
Dialogue of Civilizations and served on the board of at least
two private Syrian universities.

SECHE