SYRIANS PUBLICLY DENY ANY DEAL TO RELEASE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DAMASCUS 000010 SIPDIS SIPDIS PARIS FOR JORDAN; LONDON FOR TSOU E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/01/2018 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL KDEM SY SUBJECT: SYRIANS PUBLICLY DENY ANY DEAL TO RELEASE POLITICAL DETAINEES REF: A. DAMASCUS 0002 ¶B. DAMASCUS 0004 ¶C. DAMASCUS 0005 ¶D. 07 STATE 171106 Classified By: CDA Todd Holmstrom for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (C) Summary. On January 1, the Syrian regime issued a strongly-worded statement categorically denying that President Asad discussed or made any assertion to Senator Specter and Representative Kennedy that the seven detained National Council members had been or would be released. While the SARG can control what its own public sees to an extent, its clumsy handling of the issue has increased international media attention to Syria,s negative human rights record. End Summary. -------------- WE TALK, YOU LISTEN -------------- ¶2. (U) On January 1, the SARG issued a statement through the official Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) denying that President Bashar al-Asad discussed with or made any sort of pledge to Senator Arlen Specter or Representative Kennedy to release the seven detained members of the newly-formed National Council or to halt the campaign against political opposition in Syria. The official news agency quoted a SARG official as saying that human rights were not even discussed and that it is forbidden for foreign officials to discuss internal Syrian matters adding that, &what any foreign official can raise is to ask about the situation in general and to listen to answers regarding them.8 The same story was picked up in the government-run daily Tishreen on January ¶2. -------------- HE SAID, WE SAID, HE SAID -------------- ¶3. (C) The forceful statement comes after two days of SARG silence following Representative Kennedy,s December 30 remarks during a press conference at Damascus International Airport saying, &The president assured me personally they (the detained National Council members) were released.8 Kennedy had brought up the issue of the seven detained National Council members during the CODEL,s December 30 meeting with President Asad. According to Post reporting on the meeting, Asad said the following (ref A): -- Syrians can only be arrested if they violate Syria law -- All National Council members had been released -- Embassy should pass any names of those Congressman Kennedy �00A;believed were still in detention to Foreign Minister Mu'allim On December 29, Representative Kennedy also raised the issue with FM Mu,allim who said that the government only arrests those opposition members who have &relations with foreign powers8 (ref B). To this point, local human rights contacts assert the seven are still in custody. -------------- -------------- VIEWS ABOUT SARG,S MOTIVES -------------- -------------- ¶4. (C) According to human rights lawyer Rezan Zeitunah, the international media scrutiny on president Asad has put the regime in a difficult and unexpected position. Zeitunah said that the security services have contacted human rights activists and political opponents of the regime warning them to keep quiet on the subject. Journalists, too, are feeling the heat. Western news service reporters told us that &no one will be able to raise this issue8 in FM Mu,allim,s press conference today, because the SARG wants the issue to die and will blacklist any reporter who brings it up. The regime,s discomfort is because the international media, especially the Arabic international media, has identified Asad as the key actor responsible for the promised release, Zeitunah said. The international spotlight has thereby DAMASCUS 00000010 002 OF 002 thwarted a strategy the regime has often used in the past where one part of the government agrees to one thing while another part of the government will then deny it, according to Zeitunah. ¶5. (C) An Arab diplomatic contact told us Asad committed a grave error by committing to release people without knowing first who they were. He also showed bad judgment in underestimating the willingness of U.S. members of Congress to recount their conversations with Asad publicly. At the same time Asad &has no choice8 but to project an image of strength and counter the impression that he lost face, according to the Arab diplomat. &If Kennedy thought going public would help (the detainees) he was wrong.8 By speaking out publicly, this source said, &Kennedy guaranteed their continued detention.8 (Note: Former MP and oppositin leader Riad Seif pushed Kennedy to publicly recite what Asad told him asserting the pledge would otherwise be quietly forgotten and the SARG would calculate it could detain them indefinitely in the absence of international pressure.) (ref C) Local human rights activists Muhannad al-Hasani and Ammar Qurabi echoed the Arab diplomat,s assessment saying that the government,s most recent statement means the case of the seven National Council detainees has become more complicated and it will not be easy for the government to release them now. -------------- KEEPING THE STORY IN PLAY -------------- ¶6. (SBU) It now appears that the story of the seven detained National Council members is starting to gather international notoriety after Representative Kennedy,s comments at the Damascus press conference. In what is a rare occurrence, international media outlets have started to report the on-going detention of the seven National Council members with coverage appearing in the Associated Press, the International Herald Tribune, Reuters, and al-Arabiya. ¶7. (C) Comment. The SARG's clumsy handling of the case has kept the story alive and we could expect additional press querries and requests for comment. For now, we recommend that the President,s December 14 statement to stand on its own as our definitive position regarding the National Council and the release of the detainees. We also suggest Washington consider press guidance to highlight the SARG,s contradiction on this issue. U.S. Posts could use the guidance regarding the recent news stories in future demarches in to western capitals to request similar statements to further pressure the regime to allow more political freedom (ref D). HOLMSTROM