AMR MOUSSA EXPECTED IN DAMASCUS, SAUDI AMBASSADOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 003836

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

PARIS FOR WALLER, LONDON FOR TSOU

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV EG LE
SUBJECT: AMR MOUSSA EXPECTED IN DAMASCUS, SAUDI AMBASSADOR
RECALLED

Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Michael H. Corbin for reasons 1.4 b/d


1. (C) Summary: During a July 30 visit to Damascus,
Egypt's FM met with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad,
repeating Egyptian demands from an earlier visit after the
outbreak of the Israel-Hizballah conflict that Syria publicly
and privately push Hizballah to return Israeli soldiers and
cease fighting, according to an Egyptian diplomat in
Damascus. Asad refused, noting that the SARG did not control
Hizballah "like a light switch" and would appear weak to the
Syrian and Arab public if it called for an end to the
"resistance," according to the diplomat. As a result,
official and private Syria-Egypt relations have cooled to the
degree that protesters in front of the Egyptian Embassy last
week called Egyptian President Mubarak a "lowly real estate
broker who deserved to be dumped." Similarly, the Syrian
public and the regime have lashed out at Saudi Arabia for
criticizing the Hizballah actions that initiated the current
conflict, leading to the Saudi ambassador's recall earlier
this week, the diplomat asserted. Arab League SYG Amr Moussa
is expected to arrive August 5 in Damascus, but his message
remains unclear, the diplomat asserted. End Summary.


2. (C) The July 30 visit of Egypt's FM Ahmed Aboul Gheit to
Damascus ended in failure, reinforcing a cooling in
Syrian-Egyptian relations here, according to an Egyptian
diplomat to Syria. Aboul Gheit met with Syrian President
Bashar al-Asad, repeating Egyptian demands from an earlier
visit after the outbreak of the Israel-Hizballah conflict
that Syria publicly and privately push Hizballah to return
Israeli soldiers and cease fighting. Asad responded that the
SARG does not control Hizballah "like a light switch" and, in
any case, would appear weak to the Syrian and Arab public if
it called for an end to the "resistance," according to the
diplomat.


3. (C) Relations between the Egyptian and Syrian public have
also cooled, according to the diplomat, citing a Syrian
protest in front of the Egyptian Embassy last week, in which
demonstrators suggested that Egyptian President Mubarak was a
"lowly real estate broker who deserved to be dumped."
Similarly, the Syrian public and the regime (somewhat more
obliquely) have also lashed out at Saudi Arabia for
criticizing Hizballah for starting the current conflict,
leading to the Saudi ambassador's recall earlier this week
"at least for a period of consultations," the diplomat
asserted.


4. (C) So far, the victors of the current conflict are
Hizballah, the SARG and Iran, the diplomat asserted. There
have been no drawbacks for the regime, said the diplomat,
speculating that the SARG may have known about Hizballah's
plans to kidnap the soldiers at least a day or two before it
happened. The longer the crisis continues, the more volatile
the situation becomes, according to the diplomat, who made
his comments during a lunch attended by representatives from
other embassies. A Serbian diplomat agreed, speculating that
the longer the crisis continues, the more likely Iran will
seek to inflame the situation further, possibly triggering an
escalation that would involve Israeli-Syrian hostilities, to
delay compliance with UNSCR 1696's August 31 deadline.


5. (C) Arab League SYG Amr Moussa is expected to arrive
August 5 in Damascus, but the content and tone of his message
remains unclear, particularly as Arab countries are divided
in their response to the conflict, the Egyptian diplomat
asserted.


6. (C) The diplomat recounted how the Egyptian Embassy has
been consumed for weeks with the evacuation of 15,000
Egyptians fleeing from Lebanon across the border into Syria.
The diplomat described how he and his colleagues faced
Egyptian demonstrations in the Damascus airport after the
first days of the crisis until airlifts were organized
through a series of increasingly urgent calls from the
Egyptian Ambassador to President Mubarak's office. Even
after airlifts began, Egyptian citizens complained bitterly
about Egyptian Embassy support and caused countless
embarrassments, said the diplomat, citing as an example the
theft of baby food from aid stations set up in the airport by
the German Embassy for their evacuees. Although the number
of Egyptians seeking evacuation assistance at the Egyptian
Embassy here has now slowed significantly from the initial
exodus of 3,000 persons per day, the consular section is now
confronted with long lines of Lebanese seeking Egyptian
visas, some whom have significant influence, including female

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Lebanese pop stars, the diplomat said.
CORBIN