KUWAIT MEDIA REACTION - IRANIAN HANDS IN LEBANON

UNCLAS KUWAIT 003501 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, NEA/PI, INR/NESA, R/MR, I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA LONDON FOR TSOU PARIS FOR ZEYA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO XF KU MEDIA REACTION SUBJECT: KUWAIT MEDIA REACTION - IRANIAN HANDS IN LEBANON Block Quotes -------------- Tuesday, August 29, 2006 -- "Nasrallah's Bad Excuse" appeared on the front page of the pro-government Arabic daily Al-Seyassah where Editor-in-chief Ahmed Al-Jarallah stated (8/29): "His excuse proves that Nasrallah, the leader who was bragging during the Israeli attack, is the same man who has admitted his dreadful miscalculation. This also proves that he is incapable of making any prudent political or military decisions. This man gave himself the right to lead the Lebanese and to force them to experience a horrible fate. If any Lebanese had dared to object, then they would have been blamed and accused of being a political traitor and an agent of Israeli and the United States." -- Under the title "When Will He Be Tried as a War Criminal?" Abdullah Al-Hadlaq commented in moderate Arabic daily Al-Watan (8/29): "Hassan Nasrallah for the first time in his life had the courage to admit his mistake and take responsibility for the deaths of 1,000 Lebanese and the destruction of the south of the country. Since rule of law states that a confession is the greatest evidence and since Hassan Nasrallah has confessed his crimes, when will he and his aids stand before a special war crimes tribunal? When will they receive the proper punishment for what they have done to Lebanon, its people, and the innocent Israeli women and children who were killed by Hezbollah's random missiles?" -- In "The Middle East, the Great Resistance" Dr. Jalal Mohamed Al-Rashid inquired in moderate Arabic daily Al-Rai Al-Aam (8/29): "Are the Americans now searching for a new 'no one?' A dummy that is isolated from its people to teach him a lesson in order to relive their 'astonishing victories' in the greater Middle East after the 'resistance' of 2,000 Hezbollah fighters transformed their victories into a farce in the land of the free -- southern Lebanon?" -- "Light and Dirty Water" was the title of Ahmed Mohamed Al-Fahd's piece in moderate Arabic daily Al-Watan in which he contended (8/29): "The manufacturing by the Iranian Republic of light and dirty water and declaring it through all satellite channels is nothing short of a message to the entire world that it has returned to the status of a great power. The war against Hezbollah or on Lebanon -- as the satellite channels called it -- and its civilian victims was but a 'preview' of war and a demonstration of Iranian might." ********************************************* * For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ ********************************************* * LEBARON