Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DAMASCUS3515
2006-07-19 12:28:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Damascus
Cable title:  

TFLE01: SYRIA DAILY SITREP 03 FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY

Tags:  PREL PGOV SY LE 
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VZCZCXRO3383
OO RUEHAG
DE RUEHDM #3515/01 2001228
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 191228Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0408
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0131
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 003515 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR WALLER, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/19/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV SY LE
SUBJECT: TFLE01: SYRIA DAILY SITREP 03 FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY
19, 2006

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

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 003515

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR WALLER, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/19/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV SY LE
SUBJECT: TFLE01: SYRIA DAILY SITREP 03 FOR WEDNESDAY, JULY
19, 2006

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


1. (C) Summary: A Russian envoy and the EU's foreign policy
chief are expected to make separate visits to Syria, perhaps
as early as July 20, and the SARG may reverse its refusal to
receive UN Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, according to a
media contact. The Ba'ath Party's highest policy-making body
held its second meeting in two days on July 19, repeating its
support for the resistance of Israeli aggression, according
to Syria's official news agency. On July 18, more than
47,000 people crossed from Lebanon into Syria, including
about 7,000 non-Arab foreigners, according to Syrian
immigration officials who spoke to local media. American
Citizen Service (ACS) calls slowed slightly July 18, but 200
walk-in Americans requested assistance. The Charge has
limited TDY travel to Damascus to mission-critical personnel.
End Summary.

POLITICAL/MILITARY


2. (C) The following are political/military updates:

-- Russian Deputy FM and Middle East Envoy Alexander Saltanov
and EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana are expected to
make separate visits Syria, perhaps as early as July 20,
according to the BBC's Damascus-based correspondent Assaf
Aboud. Additionally, the SARG may reverse its refusal to
receive UN Special Envoy Terje Roed-Larsen, who may now come
as part of a larger UN delegation, according to Aboud, who
did not specify a date for the visit. (Comment: The SARG
will welcome Saltanov and Solana as a sign of regime success
at cracking the international isolation of Syria. The regime
will be less happy to see Roed-Larsen, who is charged with
the implementation of UNSCR 1559.)

-- Italy's PM Romano Prodi has made several calls to Syrian
President Bashar al-Asad, urging Syria to join a dialogue to
defuse the escalation of the Israeli-Hizballah conflict,
according an Associated Press report of comments by Italian
FM Massimo D'Alema. The Italian FM urged Europe to take a
united front on the Middle East, commenting that, "We have
seen how divisions have hurt the EU's influence in foreign

policy," the AP reported.

-- The Ba'ath Party's highest policy-making body, the
Regional Command, held its second meeting in two days on July
19, repeating its support for "the resistance" in Lebanon
(i.e. Hizballah),according to the official Syrian Arab News
Agency (SANA). The Command also called on the government to
provide complete assistance to displaced Lebanese, SANA
reported. Local and regional media are reporting a range of
efforts to assist Lebanon, including the opening of Damascus
University dormitories and five schools as temporary housing
for displaced Lebanese, welcome centers on the Syrian side of
the Lebanon-Syria border and the provision of government
buses to Damascus, hotlines to coordinate assistance to
displaced persons, and Syrian civilian aid convoys to Lebanon.

-- Syria's Ambassador to the Arab League said that his
country would not attend an extraordinary summit over
Israel's offensive in Lebanon because it is expected to
ignore "the danger that is surrounding the nation," but that
Syria would be the first country to attend such a meeting if
it supported "Arab Nation's resistance," according to a SANA
report.

-- The Charge has limited TDY travel to Damascus to
mission-critical personnel, who must receive written
permission to travel to Syria. This policy will remain in
effect at least through the end of July.

CONSULAR


3. (U) The following are consular updates:

-- About 135,000 displaced persons have fled Lebanon into
Syria since the start of Israeli attacks, according to a
report in the Syrian Champress news agency, which quoted
Syrian immigration and passport officials. On July 18, more
than 47,000 people crossed into Syria, including about 12,600
Lebanese, 20,800 Syrian citizens, 6,700 Arab citizens, and
7,000 other foreigners, according to the Champress report.
(Comment: It is impossible to determine the number of
Americans crossing from Lebanon into Syria, as dual nationals

DAMASCUS 00003515 002 OF 002


are likely to use their non-U.S. travel documents to enter
the country. Arabs do not need a visa to enter Syria.)

-- American Citizen Service (ACS) calls slowed slightly July
18, but 200 walk-in Americans requested assistance, up from
72 persons on July 17 and 120 on July 16.

-- A consular officer was dispatched July 19 to the Lebanon
side of the no-man's-land separating the Syria-Lebanon border
at the Jdeideh crossing to retrieve an American family
without U.S. passports. A similar attempt to assist the same
family on the previous day failed when the family fled
Israeli bombing in the area. Charge raised the matter July
19 with the SARG MFA's Director of Protocol who promised
border facilitation for the family's passage into Syria.

-- While no payment will be required of U.S. citizens
evacuated from Lebanon, Embassy Damascus was still verifying
if that policy would be extended to U.S. citizens who have
fled Lebanon to Syria and were seeking evacuation.

ECONOMIC/COMMERCIAL


4. (SBU) The following are economic/commercial updates:

-- The Syria-based SYG of the Higher Syrian-Lebanese Council,
Nasri al-Khoury, said that Syria had increased the power
supply by 40 megawatts to Lebanon in compensation for the
destruction of power plants by Israel, and that Syria was
considering the resupply of Lebanon with gasoline, according
to media reports.

-- Syria's three international airports were operation at
capacity, according to the MFA's protocol director.

-- A Serbian diplomat in Damascus said his Embassy was facing
a cash shortage after Israeli bombing of Lebanese roads near
the Syrian border. The bombing forced the closure of many
shops and bank branches in the Lebanese border city of
Chtaura, including the branch of the Arab Bank where Serbian
Embassy in Damascus had conducted its banking, said the
diplomat who added that his Embassy would probably transfer
its business to an Arab Bank branch in Jordan. (Comment:
Post expects that other Damascus-based embassies will face
similar problems, particularly since the imposition of the
311 sanctions caused an increasing number of diplomatic
missions here to transfer banking operations to Lebanon
because their traditional European banks stopped doing
business in Syria.) As an aside, the Deutsche Presse Agency
reported July 18 that Israeli jets bombed the Lebanon side of
the Beirut-Damascus highway, cutting off a main route used by
those fleeing Lebanon.
SECHE