WEEKLY MEDIA WRAP-UP: MIDDLE EAST (IRAQ, PALESTINIAN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 000538 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/PPD, EUR/WE, INR, R E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: OPRC PREL KPAO FR SUBJECT: WEEKLY MEDIA WRAP-UP: MIDDLE EAST (IRAQ, PALESTINIAN CONFLICT); PARIS CONFERENCES ON CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT AND ON CONVENTION AGAINST ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES; MOHAMMED CARTOONS TRIAL. FEBRUARY 9, 2007. PARIS 00000538 001.4 OF 003 Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) Following last week's major conferences on the environment, international conferences in Paris this week on child soldiers and on enforced disappearances offered new media opportunities for French officials to portray themselves in opposition to U.S. policy. Moreover, U.S.-French differences on Iraq again grabbed headlines all week with the U.S. troop surge and PM DeVillepin's comment in his Financial Times interview that "the U.S. failed in Iraq... American and British soldiers must be out of Iraq within a year." Dailies across the political spectrum said that the troop surge masks the Administration's "lack of strategy" in Iraq. Coming on the heels of the February 2 Quartet meeting in Washington, reports and commentary on Saudi Arabia's mediation in the Fatah-Hamas conflict focused on the Saudi counterpoint to Iran's growing influence in the Middle East. The trial of the satirical French newspaper that reprinted the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed opened in Paris February 7, with editorials commenting on freedom of the press and whether humor and religion are compatible in a democratic society. -------------- IRAQ: TROOP SURGE; PM VILLEPIN SPEAKS OUT -------------- ¶2. (SBU) On February 7, right-of-center Le Figaro noted Villepin's comments about Iraq in the Financial Times interview, and said that "the White House reacted by rejecting the idea of a withdrawal calendar." Popular right-of-center Le Parisien, also on February 7, claimed that FM Douste-Blazy shared PM Villepin's view of the situation in Iraq. Asked about the PM's interview at a Quai press conference, the Foreign Minister was quoted as insisting "the only solution in Iraq was a withdrawal of all foreign troops." ¶3. (SBU) On February 5, Arnaud de la Grange in right-of-center Le Figaro contended that the troop surge was in fact a diversion to hide the Administration's "lack of strategy." "In these types of conflicts," de la Grange writes, "it is better to either get out quickly or to bring about stability fast. In its war on terror, America has become too dispersed and, in Afghanistan as in Iraq, the American intervention is perceived as an occupation." Left-wing Liberation's Pierre Haski's editorial followed the same line, underscoring that troop surge is "not the answer, and even the Bush Administration does not think so." Haski notes the U.S.'s "lack of political strategy" and concludes that "sending more troops to Iraq is like political plastic surgery that hides a policy that is deeply marred." The editorial in popular right-of-center France Soir, penned by Dominique Jamet asked: "How long will it take for [the U.S.] to realize that war is not the best way to stop war." ¶4. (SBU) FM Douste-Blazy on Europe 1 radio (February 5) was asked to comment on the troop surge in Iraq: "There cannot be a military solution for Iraq. How can we stop President Bush from making such an error? Only a political solution can bring the different factions together." ¶5. (SBU) On the morning of February 7, state-run France Inter radio's foreign affairs commentator Bernard Guetta told listeners: "It would be a mistake to only remember the 'I told you so' on Iraq from the long interview of Dominique de Villepin that the Financial Times will publish tomorrow... Contrary to many Americans, Villepin was not calling for the immediate withdrawal of troops, but rather a calendar that would set out the sine qua non condition for a political settlement to the problem... He says that we would no longer be able to stand by and watch the U.S. sink into the quicksand of Iraq... Villepin urges the Iraqis to implement national reconciliation... and calls on the neighboring countries to realize that they have more to gain from the stabilization of Iraq... It is true that it is hard to see anything but the electroshock of a fixed date for troop withdrawal being able to prompt negotiations, compromises, realism and a new order in the region... What Villepin is calling for is multipolarity and doing away with the notion that a great power could alone govern over the five continents..." -------------- - MIDDLE EAST: QUARTET MEETING; SAUDI MEDIATION -------------- - ¶6. (SBU) Left-of-center Le Monde (February 5) reported that "the Quartet, which met in Washington, remains divided on the attitude to PARIS 00000538 002.2 OF 003 take towards Hamas and Syria." Le Monde's Washington correspondent Corine Lesnes comments: "Those who were seeking a sign to determine whether the U.S. was really ready to re-commit in the peace process in the Middle East will have to wait a bit longer." She contends that the meeting in Washington gave only a hint of a "cautious move towards the next step, the meeting between Secretary Rice, PM Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas." ¶7. (SBU) On Monday, February 5, left-wing Liberation reported that "Saudi Arabia is playing the role of mediator in Gaza. Saudi Arabia, close to both to the U.S. and to Hamas, decided to take on the role of mediator to prevent the Palestinians from falling into Iran's hands." Dominique Bromberger on state-run France Inter radio (February 6) opined that "Usually the Saudi leadership does not like to be in the limelight. It prefers using checkbook diplomacy behind the scenes... But since the American invasion in Iraq, Saudi Arabia is particularly worried about the emergence of the Shiites... and it is the Saudi authority that is at stake... This brimming energy with regard to diplomacy is not by choice but by necessity due to events." On February 7, Bromberger continued: "Saudi Arabia is, for the first time breaking with its usual complacency... Also because the major Western powers, with Angela Merkel for Europe and Condoleezza Rice for the U.S., are supporting Saudi Arabia's efforts. For the Europeans, Americans and Saudis alike, to allow the current situation to continue would be tantamount to playing into Iran's hands... The American Administration appears to have acknowledged the fact that... it is crucial to put the Road Map back on track." ¶8. (SBU) In "The Saudi Game," Pierre Rousselin's editorial in right-of-center Le Figaro (February 7) contends that by hosting "inter-Palestinian negotiations in Mecca, Saudi Arabia is placing itself at the center of gravity in a changing Middle East." For Rousselin, "the Saudi Monarchy is on the front lines of a major conflict which is redesigning the region and where Iran is increasingly contesting Saudi Arabia's Sunni leadership." "This is why Saudi diplomacy is being so pro-active, no longer working behind the scenes; today it is throwing caution to the wind." Rousselin argues that "in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories, Riyadh is worried about the rise to power of Tehran's allies, whether they are Iraqi Shiites, Hezbollah or Hamas. Riyadh is getting involved diplomatically and financially on these three fronts to counter the Islamic Republic of Iran." Rousselin notes that this must be done "carefully, so as not to appear to be helping U.S. interests." Rousselin concludes that the Saudis were replacing the Egyptians in these negotiations. "If these go well, it will be a signal that the center of gravity in the Middle East is moving from Cairo towards the Gulf's oil monarchies." Rousselin closes by wondering whether success was possible, "even if violence serves no one." -------------- -------------- PARIS CONFERENCES ON CHILDREN IN ARMED CONFLICT AND UN CONVENTION AGAINST ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES -------------- -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Reporting on the Paris Conference against Child Soldiers, an editorial in left-wing Liberation on February 6 commented: "Children have always been enrolled to fight in Western armies." The editorial contends that "the West's tears for the children of the Third World are somewhat hypocritical." Before accusing third world nations of enrolling children to be soldiers, it would be wise to look at practices in the West with the recent scandal over the fifteen British troops under the age of 18 that were "inadvertently" sent to fight in Iraq, violating a U.N. protocol on children's rights. "If we look hard enough we can probably find in the American military or other self-righteous armies the same sort of practice." ¶10. (U) On February 7, the unsigned editorial in Le Monde entitled "Human Rights" noted: "For the first time an international measure, the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, provides victims with the means to ensure that their cases not be forgotten... This convention indirectly calls into question the American CIA's 'secret prisons,' put in place by the Bush Administration in the fight against terrorism. Some of these prisons were alleged to be in Europe, which also points to the responsibility of the governments in question. The world's great democracies would do well to serve as an example before trying to give lessons to others." -------------- MOHAMMED CARTOONS TRIAL -------------- PARIS 00000538 003.2 OF 003 ¶11. (SBU) The unsigned editorial in the February 8 edition of left-of-center Le Monde called the trial against the satirical newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, "straight out of another era." "In a secular state, no religion or ideology is above the law. Where religion determines the law, totalitarianism sets in. In a state of law, those who practice a religion should not be insulted or discriminated against on the basis of their beliefs... Freedom of expression presupposes that different ethnic and religious communities within a single society can co-exist." WHITE