Damascus Media Reaction: Syria/Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq,

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 002264

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/Sudan, Lebanon, Iraq,
Palestinian Territories, (5/15)



1. Summary: Syrian papers reported the visit to Damascus by
Assamani Al-Waseela Assamani, Sudanese State Minister for
Foreign Affairs, who conferred with Minister Walid al-Mouallem.
Talks dealt with bilateral relations and means of boosting them
in all fields. During the meeting, the Sudanese Minister briefed
Minister Mouallem on the latest developments in Darfur issue
following the signing of a peace agreement.

Papers also reported that Dr. Muhsen Bilal, Minister of
Information, met with Bassam Qintar, brother of the Arab captive
Samir Qintar, reiterating Syria's support of national
resistance, recognized and approved by the international
legitimacy. The Minister expressed Syria's pride in hero
Qintar's steadfastness who still resists the Israeli occupation
from his prison. He expressed hope that Qintar will be released
soon to live freely with his family. Bassam Qintar said that
"the steadfast Lebanese resistance has achieved a historical
victory and forced an Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon
which has been done with Syria's big support."

End of summary.


2. Selected Headlines:

"Extensive Lebanese denunciation of honoring John Bolton, US
Ambassador to the UN. Former Lebanese Premier Huss: Free
advocation for US American policy. American Intellectual Chumski:
Lebanese national resistance is a model for Peoples of the
region" (Government-owned Tishreen, 5/15)

"Abdullah Al-Ahmar, Assistant Secretary General of Al-Ba'th
Party, and Foreign Minister Walid Mouallem review bilateral
relations and developments in Darfur with Sudanese Minister of
State for Foreign Affairs Assamani Al-Waseela Assamani"
(Government-owned Tishreen, 5/15)

"Minister of Information Bilal receives Bassam Qintar, brother of
Samir Qintar, Lebanese prisoner in Israeli jail: Syria supports
the course of national Resistance" (Government-owned Al-Thawra,
5/15)

"Palestinian Prime Minister Hanieh: We will not surrender to the
Quartet and will not offer political concessions. Six
Palestinians martyred in the West Bank. Hundreds of Palestinian
houses demolished in Jerusalem" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 5/15)

"A new Israeli racial law to partition Palestinian families of

1948. Six Palestinians killed, five injured by Israeli attacks on
Qabatiya and Jenin" (Government-owned Tishreen, 5/15)

"Iraqi designate Prime Minister al-Maliki may announce the
formation of the government without Ministries of Interior and
Defense. Four Americans and two British soldiers killed in
Baghdad and Basra" (Government-owned Tishreen, 5/15)


3. Editorial Block Quotes:

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"Crisis-Stricken Ones: Failure at Home and Disappointment
Abroad"

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Elias Murad, Chief Editor of government-owned Al-Ba'th, wrote
(5/15): "No single day goes by or an occasion passes, even a
local visit, without us hearing voices and abuses against Syria
by some Lebanese individuals who have made it their job to harm
Syria and Lebanon despite all the assertions that Syria no
longer interferes in Lebanese domestic affairs.

"Some crisis-stricken people do not hesitate to implicate Syria
in every little problem. Their insolence was such that they
claimed that the recent demonstration in Beirut, which raised
social demands, was a result of Syrian incitement....



fraternal Lebanese people other than incitement against their
Arab brothers, particularly Syria. Through this they seek to
cover their failure and absorb the anger of the public by
blaming the failures on a foreign party or local ghosts. They
went far in their accusations when they found that Syria was not
willing to respond to them or to engage in media exchanges and
dialogues with them, because they placed themselves outside the
logic of dialogue in the first place. They used their authority
and its tools, as much as they could, to create a tense
atmosphere between Lebanon and Syria through abuses on one hand
and conspiracies and incitement against Syria and its leadership
on the other.

"Those people deluded themselves into thinking that Syria was
weak or unable to resist the pressure. But they were
disappointed when Syria surprised them with its ability, with
the unity of its people behind the leadership of President Asad,
and with its response. They sought help from foreigners and
joined the game. They spread out in the world, from Washington
to Paris, and some of them sought help from Israel, hoping it
would save them from the crisis and the hole they tried to push
Lebanon into...."

--------------

"Insulting the Cedar Trophy"

--------------

Ali Qasim, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra,
commented (5/15): "The 14 March forces in Lebanon have
reportedly awarded John Bolton, US Representative to the United
Nations, the Lebanese Cedar Trophy....

"Bolton is one of the most extremist symbols of the American
right and the strongest supporter of Israel....

"This step shows the real motives of the 14 March forces. Their
representatives, on their way back from New York, should visit
comatose Sharon to award him a similar trophy as a medal for his
massacres in Sabra and Shatila...."

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"The US Council"

--------------

Ahmad Dawwa, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra,
commented (5/15): "The draft resolution that Britain, France,
and the United States submitted to the Security Council on Syria
and Lebanon shows, on one of its faces, the effort to divert the
Council from its basic mission of maintaining world peace and
security, preventing the eruption of conflicts and wars, and
addressing other issues explained in the UN Charter.

"The other face of the draft is its blatant infringement of the
UN Charter, which rejects, under any pretext, meddling in the
internal affairs of countries for purposes that do not serve the
Security Council's basic missions.

"The proposed draft resolution sets a serious precedent in the
work of the international organization. Its adoption would
strengthen, in an unprecedented way, the conviction that the
Security Council has turned into a tool in the hands of the
forces that proposed the draft to serve their own objectives and
interests in the region and the world, contrary to the Council's
mission. It would also pave the way for similar future
resolutions that would torpedo security and stability and place
the Council in confrontation with the free nations that refuse
to give in to despotism and hegemony, which now characterize the
policies of some big powers, primarily the United States.

"And the infiltration of the policy of discrimination and double-
standards into the resolution adoption mechanism would torpedo

the coexistence among nations, create a state of hostility that
is already threatening world peace and security, and undermine
the bases on which the Security Council and the United Nations
were built. This tendency to destabilize international
cooperation is no longer an ulterior US objective; it is a basic
and declared element in the US foreign policy, meant to serve
the "constructive instability" theory...."

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"Withdrawal Is still not Scheduled"

--------------

Maha Sultan, a commentator in government-owned Tishreen, wrote
(5/15): "President Bush's growing predicament in Iraq drove him
to seek the advice and help of former secretaries of state and
defense for the second time in four months.... But Bush still
refuses to set a date for the withdrawal of the American troops
from Iraq.... This shows stubbornness and insistence on
disregarding the mistake of his Iraq policies....

"But he will find himself, along with the officials of his
administration, forced to count more dead American bodies before
the mid-term elections. If the number is big, as the scene in
the Iraqi field indicates, the consequences for him and for his
Republican Party will be disastrous...."

Seche