Syria/Egypt, Syria/Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 000192 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR PA, NEA/ARN, INR/IC/CD, INR/R/MR:STHIBEAULT AND JMCCARTER, VOA NEWS CA, NEA/PPD:CBOURGEOIS, AZAIBACK, AND AFERNANDEZ, IIP/G/NEA-SA MDAVIDSON WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC CENTCOM FOR CCPA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KMDR PREL KPAO OPRC SY SUBJECT: Syria/Egypt, Syria/Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories (2/28) ¶1. Summary: Syrian papers on Feb. 28 reported that President Asad received a phone call on Feb. 27 from President Mubarak about preparations for the Arab Summit scheduled for March 28 in Riyadh. On Iraq, papers reported that FM Mouallem received a telephone call on Feb. 27 from Turkish FM Abdullah Gul focusing on preparations for the meeting of Iraq's neighboring countries due to be held in Baghdad in March. Papers cited a Washington Post report claiming that the Bush Administration has decided to sit side by side with Syria and Iran within the framework of the meeting. On the Lebanese issue, papers reported VP Shara's meeting on Feb. 27 with Abd-al-Rahim Murad, Chairman of the Lebanese al-Ittihad Party. Talks focused on the tense situation in Lebanon. Shara reiterated Syria's support for everything the Lebanese agree upon to achieve national accord and serve Lebanon's interests and Arab affiliation. In a statement to reporters after the meeting, Murad stressed the importance of the special fraternal relations between Syria and Lebanon and criticized attempts by some parties in Lebanon to harm and destabilize these relations to serve the American-Zionist plan. He called for a national unity government, for enactment of a new and fair electoral law, and for setting a new date for holding parliamentary elections, after which presidential elections can be held. Murad welcomed all initiatives that seek to find solutions to the Lebanese crisis. On the international tribunal, Murad said "the tribunal, in its current status, is political, not judicial." He added: "This is unacceptable. The tribunal must not be used to cover American and Zionist intervention in this region." On the visit to Moscow by Khaled Mashal, Chairman of the Hamas Politburo, papers featured a press statement by Mishal expressing hope that a Palestinian national unity government will be formed, stressing that his visit to Russia aims at holding consultations to lift the economic siege against Palestinians. The Hamas official held Israel responsible for the absence of peace in the Middle East because of its continued rejection of Palestinian rights and occupation of Arab territories. He called on the EU and the UN to exert all efforts to make the Quartet committee reconsider its positions regarding the situation in the region. End of summary. ¶2. Selected Headlines: "President Asad receives a phone call from Egyptian President Mubarak on preparations for the upcoming Arab summit" (Government-owned Tishreen, 2/28) "FM Mouallem reviews with Turkish FM Abdullah Gul preparations for the meeting of Iraq's neighboring countries due to be held in Baghdad in March. Washington: We hope to sit with Syria and Iran" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) "Vice-President Shara discusses the current Lebanese crisis with Chairman of the Lebanese al-Ittihad Party Abdul Rahim Murad. Shara: Syria supports all that the Lebanese agree upon to accomplish national accord and serve Lebanon's interests and Arab affiliation" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) "Lebanese national opposition refuses to turn Lebanon into an advance trench for US plots. The opposition: We persist in the sit-in. New steps will be taken soon" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) "Four occupation soldiers killed in Baghdad. More than 18 Iraqi children are victimized by terrorist attacks in al-Ramadi. US suspicions about the Baghdad security plan" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) "Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discusses the issue of a Palestinian national unity government with Khalid Mashaal, Chairman of the Politburo of Hamas Movement: Our goal is a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders. Moscow supports the Mecca Accord and confirms readiness to lift the siege on Palestinians" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) ¶3. Editorial Block Quotes: -------------- "Will the Congress Act?" -------------- Muhammad Khayr al-Jammali, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawrah, wrote (2/28): "There are current efforts by the Democratic majority in the US Congress to withdraw powers that Congress gave to President Bush before the Iraq invasion allowing him to declare war and secure funds for it.... "Democrats have now realized that the raging war in Iraq has become futile, as it has failed to achieve the objectives that were set for it and has begun to take the form of a strategic crisis for the United States and its policy in the region.... "We wonder if the Congress will decide to withdraw the war powers from a president obsessed with the idea of war, and the expansion of its scope in the Middle East, even if this leads to an international disaster that will primarily harm the United States and its international interests.... "The Congress has no option but to do this if its Democratic and Republican members really want to correct the course of American policy and thus serve the interests of the American people, strengthen world peace, and safeguard stability in the Middle East, which is the key to international stability, given the extreme geo-strategic importance of this region." -------------- - "Desperate Tours for Unsuccessful Aspirations" -------------- - Dr. Ibrahim Zu'ayr, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawrah, wrote (2/28): "The ideas and views that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice carried during her recent tour of the region are out of line with the security and domestic stability to which the peoples of the region aspire. "The solutions that Americans offer are not compromises so much as they are attempts to serve American and Israeli interests only.... "Washington and its representatives in the American foreign policy establishment have not realized that their friends in the region are no longer able to digest this American policy, which is full of hypocrisy, lies, chronic enmity toward the good of the peoples of the region, and absolute bias toward Israel and its permanent policy of aggression.... "Rice tried to convince Palestinian and Iraqi leaders of the American ideas but did not try to discuss the essential, crucial, and decisive issues that would lead, if resolved, to peace in the Middle East.... "Rice's mission, therefore, is impossible to accomplish because she and the US president deal with the Middle East with the mentality of 'those who are not with us are our enemies and those who are with us are our friends.' This repressive mentality will not intimidate or frighten those who defend the freedom and independence of their countries and who fight to drive the invaders out of their territories. The solution lies only in American withdrawal from Iraq and Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, and in leaving the peoples of the region to determine their future by themselves. Only in this way can peace, security, and stability have a new historic opportunity." -------------- "A Mistaken Message" -------------- Ali Qasim, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawrah, wrote (2/28): "If the purpose of the Israeli incursion into Nabulus in the past two days was to tell Palestinians that a Palestinian national unity government not meeting Israeli conditions will be dangerous, then this Israeli message was counterproductive because such practices will make Palestinians realize the meaning of accepting those Israeli conditions and make them understand that the issue is not so much rejecting the position of this Palestinian faction or that as it is rejecting Palestinian rights altogether.... "Perhaps the Israelis and Americans did not realize that the use of the Quartet to pressure Palestinians into accepting things that conflict with their choices and legitimate rights was misdirected, especially after the recent developments that opened the door wide for Palestinians to form a national unity government enjoying comprehensive Arab and Islamic support as well as international support providing the objective conditions for breaking the siege on the Palestinian people." -------------- "When They Become Useless" -------------- Dr. Turki Saqr, an op-ed writer in government-owned Tishreen, wrote (2/28): "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her latest tour of the region, found no exit for the failed US policy except through creating further tension in Lebanon, obstructing solutions to the country's existing crisis, fomenting sectarian and denominational sedition among the Lebanese, and pushing things toward the abyss of civil war through the use of cheap tools who sold themselves to Americans and became their agents for few dollars.... "The agents in Lebanon are torpedoing every plan to resolve the crisis so that Lebanon will remain an outpost for the main and forward American plan in the region. "Rice's remark that the Lebanese government is the spearhead of the American plan in the region entails recognition that the dispute in Lebanon is not a domestic dispute over the international tribunal, for example, so much as it is a continuation of the war that the Israelis launched on Lebanon in July. "The American objective is not the tribunal or the revelation of the truth about the Al-Hariri assassination, but the protection of the impotent US plan for the region. "But agents of the United States in Lebanon must be aware that Washington cares only about its interests and that it will easily abandon them, as it has abandoned former agents, as soon as they become useless...." Corbin