Damascus Media Reaction: Israeli Operation in Lebanon,

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003779

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: Israeli Operation in Lebanon,
Syria/Qatar (8/1)



1. Summary: Syrian papers reported that President Asad addressed
the Syrian armed forces on July 31 in a speech published in "The
People's Army" magazine, marking the 61st anniversary of the
foundation of the Syrian Army. Asad said that the anniversary is

being observed this year "amid international circumstances and
regional challenges that call for vigilance, awareness and
readiness as the genocidal war waged by the Israeli enemy on our
brave people in Lebanon and Palestine becomes more vicious."
Asad added that "brotherly Lebanon is under flagrant aggression
by the Israeli war machine by air, land and sea, perpetrating
the ugliest forms of killing, destruction and sabotage against
innocent unarmed people and infrastructure, in defiance of all
international laws, charters, and human and moral principles,
and supported by the powers of hegemony in the world. Those
powers have stood by the aggressors, justifying their actions
and providing them with the means to go ahead with their
destruction." President Asad said that "these aggressions,
killings and acts of destruction committed by the Israelis are
nothing but a pre-meditated plot in collaboration with a number
of superpowers which dominate international society, disabling
it and confiscating its legitimacy, resolutions and institutions
to kill the will of life and freedom." He added that "their plot
is to undermine all aspirations of resistance, dismember the
region and inflict moral defeat before geographic defeat as part
compensation for the humiliating defeat and departure from south
Lebanon under the blows of the resistance." The President said
that "this is the time of national public resistance which has
been able to humiliate the occupiers in Iraq, Palestine and
today in Lebanon, proving to the world that the might of right
is stronger than the might of unjust power." President Asad
stressed that Israel is the party that started the aggression by
capturing land before individuals. "Israel detains thousands of
prisoners in its jails; it is the party which occupies Arab
lands in Palestine, the Golan and south Lebanon." He stressed
that "all shouts of threat and warning launched by the powers of
hegemony, which support the aggression, will not affect us or
force us to abandon the march of liberation or stop backing our
brothers and the resistance." The President instructed all
Syrian armed forces to be prepared, saying that "with our belief
that martyrdom is the way of freedom and victory, we have to be
confident that every effort and each drop of sweat spent now in
training will in the future spare a drop of blood when it is
time to do so. Our battle will be continuous so long as our land
is occupied and our rights are usurped, and victory is coming,
God willing."

Syrian papers also reported Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem's
visit to Doha carrying a message from President Asad to the Emir
of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa Ben Hamad Al-Thani, about the tense
situation in the region caused by the Israeli aggression against
Lebanon. Al-Mouallem will also hold talks with senior Qatari
officials.

Papers also reported Lebanese President Lahoud's interview with
Al-Jazeera TV, warning against dispatch of international forces
to Lebanon, saying that such forces cannot end the resistance
and will only destroy Lebanon. "France's calls to send forces to
Lebanon aim at increasing French influence in Lebanon. Americans
also want to send their forces. Only UN forces will guarantee
the preservation of peace on the borders", Lahoud added.

End of summary.


2. Selected Headlines:

"President Asad addresses Syrian armed forces in a speech marking
the 61st anniversary of the foundation of the Syrian Army,
expressing Syria's support for the brave Lebanese national
resistance, stressing Syria's support for Lebanon" (Government-
owned Tishreen, 8/1)

"A message from President Asad to the Emir of Qatar asserting
importance of mobilizing efforts to form an international
committee to investigate the Israeli massacres" (Government-owned
Tishreen, 8/1)

"The National Leadership of Al-Baath Party calls on Arab and
foreign parties to support the Lebanese and Palestinian people:
America underestimates international legitimacy and supports
Israel's brutality" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 8/1)

"Information Minister Bilal reviews with Italian Foreign Minister
D'Alema the dangerous situations in the region and means of
reaching an immediate ceasefire " (Government-owned Tishreen,
8/1)

"Lebanese President: Any multinational forces will cause sedition
among Lebanese. We support maintaining UNIFIL troops in agreement
with the Lebanese government" (Government-owned Tishreen, 8/1)

"The US gives Israel more time to destroy what remains of
Lebanon. Israeli Prime Minister Olmert is determined to continue
aggression, admits big losses" (Government-owned Tishreen, 8/1)

"A sit-in conducted by Syrian and Lebanese women in Damascus:
Stop shedding innocent blood in Lebanon" (Government-owned
TIshreen, 8/1)


3. Editorial Block Quotes:

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

"Responsibility for the Massacre"

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

Muhammad Khair al-Jammali, an editorialist in government-owned
Al-Thawra, wrote (8/1): "The killing of civilians in the south
Lebanese village of Qana is an organized crime showing once
again that Israel is a criminal state, adopting crime as an
official policy and a tool to achieve its unconcealed hostile
objectives against the Arabs....

"Israel is the first and last source of threat to regional
stability and world peace.... The international community must
break its silence and apply the provisions of Chapter Seven of
the UN Charter against Israel because it is not qualified to
live peacefully in a world that seeks peace....

"Allies in the aggression against Lebanon are accomplices to the
Qana crime.... The United Nations and human rights
institutions must investigate the Qana massacre and bring
Israeli and American officials to trial as war criminals for
perpetrating it....

"Bush and his administration are directly responsible for the
crime because they are the ones who gave the green light to the
aggression and who supplied Israel with the tools of the crime,
in the form of internationally prohibited weapons....

"We know that the aim of the crime was to terrorize the Lebanese
people so that they will not continue to embrace the national
resistance, and to take revenge against the resistance for the
bitter defeat it inflicted upon Israel, its arrogance and its
army. But the Lebanese people, who have experienced the Zionist
enemy and its malice, spite, and racist hatred, will remain
steadfast in the face of the aggression, supporting their heroic
resistance with all elements of power and victory...."

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

"Two Options Only"
--------------

Dr. Khalaf al-Jarrad, Chief Editor of government-owned Tishreen,
wrote (8/1): "Planners, strategists, and decision-makers in
Israel and its supporters must read the history and nature of
the Arab region, as this will help them understand that their
brutal wars, destruction, and collective killing of our people
in Iraq, Palestine, and Lebanon will be of no use to them and
will not force our nation to surrender. On the contrary, they

will drive millions of Arabs in their various countries to join
the resistance, carry weapons, and fight Zionism. They will
trigger formidable popular eruptions in many countries against
those who collude with the enemy or remain silent about the
aggression, those who search for excuses and justifications for
the enemy's crimes against our people, kinsfolk, women,
children, and the elderly....

"History will have no mercy on anyone. Every individual in this
[Arab] nation -- particularly its rulers - must choose the
trench it wants to stand in and fight from: Either the trench of
Israel, Zionism, the United States (led by the neoconservatives)
and the rightist and racist trends allied to them and the forces
and regimes that support them militarily, politically,
economically, intellectually, diplomatically, ideologically, and
through collusion, or the trench of resistance, which is
defending land, rights, dignity, honor, history, and identity,
and with it all Arab, Islamic, and international opposition
forces. There is no third option in this decisive existential
equation at this decisive juncture...."

Roebuck