Damascus Media Reaction: Syria/Jordan, OIC Ministerial,

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003043 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/Jordan, OIC Ministerial, Syria/Russian, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories (6/22) ¶1. Summary: Syrian papers reported that President Asad on Wednesday made a telephone call to His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan and that they discussed bilateral relations between the two sisterly countries. Talks also dealt with preparation for the meeting of the Syrian-Jordanian Higher Joint Committee which is scheduled to occur in Damascus by the end of the month. The papers also reported the final statement of the OIC Ministerial meeting held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The OIC Foreign Ministers called for ending the occupation of the Golan and other Arab territories. They also expressed solidarity with Syria and called on the US Administration to enter with good intentions into a dialogue with Syria and to reconsider the Syria Accountability Act. Papers also reported the visit to Moscow by Yarub Badr, Syrian Minister of Transportation, and his meeting with Igor Ivanov, Secretary General of the Russian National Security Council. SIPDIS Minister Badr confirmed that Syria is serious about purchasing three new passenger jets from Russia. Papers also reported the Lebanese denunciation of France's refusal to invite President Lahoud to the Francophone Conference in Romania. End of summary. ¶2. Selected Headlines: "President Asad talks on the phone with King Abdullah II. Talks focus on bilateral relations and preparations for the meeting of the Syrian-Jordanian Higher Joint Committee" (Government-owned Al- Ba'th, 6/22) "The OIC Ministerial calls for a full Israeli pullout from the Golan and all occupied Arab territories: We express solidarity with Syria and reject US sanctions against it" (Government-owned Tishreen, 6/22) "Russia emphasizes cooperation with Syria. Ivanov: We are ready to carry out all agreements. Badr [Syrian Minister of Transportation]: Our decision to buy Russian planes is serious" (Government-owned Tishreen, 6/22) "Lebanese anger at French position and foreign intervention. Lahoud: I will continue to defend Lebanon's dignity" (Government- owned Tishreen, 6/22) "Annan calls on Israel to respect international law. Two Palestinians martyred in Khan Yunis and Nablus. Olmert threatens to liquidate HAMAS Ministers" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 6/22) "Europeans urge Bush to adopt a less stringent position. Austrians describe Bush as 'number 1 world terrorist'" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 6/22) "One of Saddam's lawyers is assassinated. Gunmen kidnap a hundred Iraqi employees. The Iraqi Parliament calls on Washington to investigate the Ba'quba massacre" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 6/22) ¶3. Editorial Block Quotes: -------------- "Palestinian Dialogue" -------------- Jamal al-Zu'bi, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Ba'th, wrote (6/22): "Palestinians must safeguard their national unity and avoid splits and differences so that they can confront the organized genocidal war against them and achieve their national objectives. The inter-Palestinian dialogue must continue, in order to end the political and financial crisis and to draw up a unified Palestinian policy... "We must give the national interest precedence over secondary interests and conflicts because the winners in such conflicts will stay, along with the losers, in the same prison, which is surrounded by the guns of the occupation and threatened by the tanks and missiles of the occupation...." -------------- "Lebanese Resistance and Lebanese Agents" -------------- Khalid al-Ashhab, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra, wrote (6/22): "Does anyone still believe the private agents of the American 'creative instability' theory in the Arab region, particularly in Lebanon, who, for more than a year, have continued to promote a big lie and raise the slogans of democracy, sovereignty, and independence.... "Those who deceived the Lebanese people and dragged them toward an acute crisis in economy, politics, and national accord, must prepare for their defeat, as the United States, the mother company, is about to go bankrupt in its second subversive investment in the Arab region (Lebanon),while its first investment in Iraq is on the brink of the abyss.... "The Lebanese have the right today to avenge their bitter and miserable living conditions and to take revenge against those who sold them in the bartering of freedom and sovereignty. The Lebanese -- and they are the pioneers of resistance and the champions of its most refined model -- have the right to hold those people to account for what they did and are still doing to them, in words and deeds: deception, humiliation, and impotence. They have the right to ask them what remains of the assets of freedom, sovereignty, and dignified life that those people claimed to have deposited in the name of Lebanon and the Lebanese in the American, French, and even Israeli political banks. This is the least the Lebanese can do...." -------------- "One Knife, One Victim" -------------- Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, commented (6/22): "The Japanese prime minister did well when he announced that Japanese forces will be withdrawn from Iraq, thus joining Italy, Spain, and many other countries that have discovered the deception they were subjected to when they participated in the genocidal war that the United States and Britain are waging against the Iraqi people.... "All the excuses that the United States has offered to justify the war on Iraq proved to be lies.... The developments in Iraq, from Abu Ghurayb to Hadithah and Ba'qubah, Al-Anbar, and other regions, have proven that human rights violations were committed in the worst forms, matched only by the violations of the Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people. It is as if what is happening in Iraq is a copy of what is happening in Palestine. The knife is the same and the victims are the Arab people, and it is premeditated slaughter... "Perhaps the US warplanes' bombing of houses over the heads of their occupants, as happened yesterday, for example, is a Xerox copy of the bombing of houses over the heads of their occupants in Gaza by the American-made Israeli planes. What happened in Abu Ghurayb also happened and is happening in Israeli detention camps. The examples that show full similarity between Israel's crimes and what the American forces are doing are countless...." -------------- "Europe: Leaders and Peoples" -------------- Hanan Hamad, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote (6/22): "The Abu Ghurayb and Guantanamo curse pursues President Bush wherever he travels, and will receive him in Vienna.... "President Bush will be received in Europe not only by thousands of demonstrators, but also with criticism from European leaders of the CIA secret flights over Europe. These protests will certainly cast a negative shadow on the objectives of the US president's visit...." Seche