JORDAN: ISLAMIST EDITOR SAYS TALK OF PEACE

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 001762 SIPDIS FOR NEA/ELA E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/03/2019 TAGS: PGOV PREL SCUL KDEM KISL JO SUBJECT: JORDAN: ISLAMIST EDITOR SAYS TALK OF PEACE FUELING LOCAL FEARS REF: AMMAN 1667 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Lawrence Mandel for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) Summary: In a meeting with Acting Information Officer, the editor of the Islamist daily Al-Sabeel newspaper lauded U.S. outreach to Muslims but asserted there had been no developments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to convince Jordanians that the U.S. would deal with both sides equally. He criticized Jordan's decision-makers for diminishing the country's regional significance over the past 10 years by blindly implementing U.S. requests. Jordan feared it would be asked to pay a heavy price in a peace agreement, he added. The editor-in-chief noted that, although there had been "differences in opinion" between Sabeel and the United States, the new U.S. Administration has provided an opening for renewed contacts after a long period of a lapsed relationship. End Summary. -------------- Overview of Al-Sabeel Meeting -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Acting IO and Info Specialist met August 2 with Atef Jolani, editor-in-chief of the Arabic-language daily, Al-Sabeel (Arabic for "The Path"),formerly an Islamist weekly and editorially aligned with Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing, the Islamist Action Front. Embassy contacts with Al-Sabeel (as with other Islamist-aligned organizations) ceased in the years after September 11, 2001. This visit was part of a round of courtesy calls to chief editors of all six of Jordan's dailies. The 90-minute conversation covered the peace process and locally related developments, reform in Jordan, freedom of speech, and Sabeel operations. -------------- Peace Process and Jordan -------------- ¶3. (C) Jolani lauded POTUS' June 4 speech for capturing Muslims' hearts but added that there had been no developments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to convince Jordanians logically that the U.S. would deal with both sides equitably. The editor-in-chief criticized Jordan's decision-makers for diminishing the country's regional significance over the past 10 years by blindly implementing U.S. requests "whether or not they were in Jordan's interest." As proof, Jolani conspiratorally cited the fact that Senator Mitchell did not visit Jordan on two recent trips to the region. Rather than acting proactively in its own interests, Jordan was constantly waiting for a next development -- be it the 2008 U.S. elections, the early 2009 Israeli vote, the unveiling of renewed efforts toward peace, or the current Fatah Sixth Congress, Jolani asserted. -------------- Citizenship Issue -------------- ¶4. (C) Jordan's government and the public feared that Jordan would be asked to pay a heavy price in a peace agreement, most significantly by agreeing to resettle the large population of Palestinians resident in Jordan. (Note: Jordanians will quietly say that more than 60 percent of the country's residents are of Palestinian origin, as opposed to "real Jordanians" who originate from the East Bank of the River Jordan. End Note.) In response, Interior Minister Nayef Al-Qadi was leading an effort to withdraw the citizenship of Palestinians to prevent them from settling permanently in Jordan and monopolizing resources currently reserved for East Bankers (reftel),Jolani asserted. -------------- Avoiding Reforms -------------- ¶5. (C) Jordan, like other Arab governments, used the Middle East conflict to avoid domestic political reforms, stated Jolani. Jordan's leaders claimed they could not implement equitable electoral reforms because Palestinians and Islamists would dominate national politics, asserted Jolani, pointing to figures indicating that rural, East Banker-dominated parts of the country have a far stronger presence in the elected National Assembly than do urban centers such as Amman and Zarqa with a majority of Palestinian-origin voters. -------------- AMMAN 00001762 002 OF 002 Freedom of Speech -------------- ¶6. (C) Jolani noted that in 10 years as editor-in-chief he had only received one phone call several years ago from Jordanian authorities who politely asked that the then-weekly tone down the stridency of its reporting on the conflict in Iraq. The management of Al Sabeel, which became a daily in February, ensured that reporters understood Jordanian laws governing the media to avoid crossing "red lines." Additionally, Jordanian authorities avoided interfering with Al-Sabeel to be able to say that Jordan's Islamist opposition operated freely in Jordan, Jolani asserted. -------------- Sabeel's Editorial Slant -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Jolani claimed that the daily newspaper had a policy of reporting from a straight news perspective, in contrast to the unabashed Islamist slant of its 16-year-old weekly precursor. (Noted: Additionally, Jolani stated that he was a member of the "Islamist movement," without providing more specifics. End Note.) The only exception was in its reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, where the paper was openly biased in its news coverage of "the Israeli occupiers," Jolani said. The paper took pride in a wide network of domestic correspondents, with weekly contributions from overseas columnists, including in the U.S. Al-Sabeel had an estimated 3,000 daily subscribers and hoped to double that by year's end. Statistics about readership of Jordan's dailies were not reliable, but Al-Sabeel thought it was the fourth most widely read of the six dailies after Al-Rai, Al-Ghad and Al-Arab Al-Yawm, Jolani said. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶8. (C) We have heard in recent months of Al Sabeel's interest in renewed contact with the Embassy; Jolani's willingness to talk at length about sensitive issues seemed proof of that. When asked about Embassy-Sabeel cooperation, Jolani noted Sabeel coverage of Embassy economic news and provided us contact information for the Political Affairs editor to include on our media distribution list. He noted that although there had been "differences in opinion" between Al Sabeel and the U.S. because of the recent conflict in Iraq that the new Administration had provided an opening for renewed contacts. Visit Amman's Classified Web Site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman Mandel