Damascus Media Reaction: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 000200

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR PA, NEA/ARN, INR/IC/CD, INR/S:STHIBEAULT AND
JMCCARTER, VOA NEWS CA, NEA/PPD:CBOURGEOIS, DBENZE AND
AFERNANDEZ, IIP/G/NEA-SA RWINCHESTER
WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC
CENTCOM FOR CCPA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMDR PREL KPAO OPRC SY
SUBJECT: Damascus Media Reaction: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq,
Palestinian Territories, Iran (1/18)

1. Summary: Syrian papers today reported Egyptian President
Mubarak's meeting with US Vice-President Dick Cheney and
headlined Mubarak's statement that Syria has cooperated with the
IIC.

News reports featured a statement by Saudi FM Saud al-Faisal to
the Financial Times that Saudi Arabia has presented Lebanon and
Syria with a set of proposals designed to defuse tension between
the two countries, and that the Kingdom is waiting for a response
from Beirut and Damascus.
Papers also cited a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov
that Syria has made efforts to cooperate with the IIC and
rejecting international sanctions against Syria.

Papers reported that Syria will host a general conference of the
Arab Bar Federation on Saturday 1/21 that will deal with pressure
and threats facing Syria. Sources in the Arab Bar Federation said
that President Asad will deliver an important speech during the
conference and will announce important measures to be taken in
Syria.

End of summary.


2. Selected Headlines:
"Under the patronage of President Asad, Syria hosts the General
Conference of Arab Bar Federation. Secretary General of Arab
Lawyers Union Ibrahim Simlali: We are here in Syria because the
Arab nation [Umma] needs Damascus" (Government-owned Al-Thawra,
1/18)
"Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov praises Syrian cooperation with
the IIC investigating the assassination of former Lebanese PM
Rafik al-Hariri. Lavrov: We refuse to politicize the
investigation and invest it with political aims" (Government-
owned Al-Thawra, 1/18)
"Mubarak receives Cheney: Syria has cooperated with the IIC"
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/18)
"Thousands of Lebanese students stage a sit-in outside the US
Embassy in Beirut, protesting foreign intervention in Lebanese
internal affairs. US Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman
demands that the Lebanese Premier get rid of Hizbollah"
(Government-owned Al-Thawra, 1/18)
"Lebanese MP Marwan Fares, a member of the Syrian Social National
Party (SSNP): Treachery is an attribute of those who killed and
displaced people in Mount Lebanon" (Government-owned Tishreen,
1/18)
"Turkey reiterates the importance of peaceful methods to solve
regional problems" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 1/18)
"Martyrdom of Al-Qassam Brigades' leader in Tulkarm. Olmert in
Sharon's footsteps: We will negotiate with Hamas after
dismantling their weapons" (Government-owned Tishreen, 1/18)
"Five US soldiers injured in Kerbala. Several Iraqis killed or
wounded in separate attacks" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 1/18)

3. Editorial Block Quotes:
--------------
"Their Goals and Means"
--------------
Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, said
(1/18): "Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has shown hatred
not only toward Syria, but also toward a wide sector of the
Lebanese themselves, particularly the Lebanese resistance....
"Jumblatt's reported description of Hizbollah's weapons as
weapons of treachery suggests that Jumblatt takes orders from his
masters oversees, with the goal of disarming Hizbollah and
Palestinians in Lebanon....
"Jumblatt is very enthusiastic about Resolution 1559, and more
enthusiastic about anything American and French.... He wants to
prove to the White House and the Elysee Palace that he is the
winning horse and that he is in a hurry, more than the Bush
administration and Israel, to implement this resolution....
"Jumblatt received Israelis in his palace [in 1982]... History
and the Lebanese people have not forgotten this."
--------------
"Evils of Sedition"
--------------
Omar Jaftali, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, said
(1/18): "Treachery is a description that befits those who accuse
the resistance of treason and engage in political trades and
media exchanges to facilitate foreign interference in Lebanese













affairs.... These people, fortunately, are a minority, while the
majority of the Lebanese consider resistance a strategic option
for Lebanon....
"This small group of Lebanese is engaged in suspicious activities
and serving the American-Israeli plans that seek to impose
hegemony on the entire region.... This group is assisted by the
activities of US Ambassador Feltman and Assistant Secretary of
State Welch, who are inciting the Lebanese against each other,
unleashing the evils of sedition, and directing accusations
against the nationalist forces, which are struggling so that
Lebanon will remain free and proud, without foreign
trusteeship...."
--------------
"When History Is Distorted"
--------------
Ali Qasim, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra, said
(1/18): "After the collapse of false testimony in the Al-Hariri
case and the disclosure of a series of scandals regarding the
mechanism used to make accusations, some [Lebanese] politicians
had no option but to tamper with memory and history and strike
deals in an attempt to emerge from the tunnel and prepare, at a
later stage, to blow the Lebanese situation apart under the
pretext of searching for independence....
"In this respect, we see frantic attempts to strike a deal with
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General
Command.... A PFLP-GC official in Lebanon maintains that Walid
Jumblatt asked the organization to hand over its heavy weapons in
Lebanon to the Progressive Socialist Party in return for money
and political cover.... The growing talk in Lebanon recently
about the rejection of any deals at the expense of Lebanon was
meant to cover the failure to accomplish a deal with the PFLP-
GC...."
--------------
"A Hot File"
--------------
Bassam Radwan, a columnist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote
(1/18): "The Iranian nuclear issue represents a conflict between
Iran, which has the right to possess peaceful nuclear technology,
and the United States and its allies, which want to deprive Iran
of this right....
"There is a blatant discrepancy in the West's approach toward the
Iranian file compared to its approach toward Israel's nuclear
weapons....
"A diplomatic solution remains the only logical and realistic way
out of the crisis.... This solution should guarantee Iran's legal
right to possess peaceful nuclear technology and the right of the
international community in general to ensure that the Iranian
program will not diverge toward military industrialization...."
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