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:

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"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...."

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"Europe: Leaders and Peoples"

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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...."

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