This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PARIS 001670 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR INR/R/MR; IIP/RW; IIP/RNY; BBG/VOA; IIP/WEU; AF/PA; 
EUR/WE /P/SP; D/C (MCCOO); EUR/PA; INR/P; INR/EUC; PM; OSC ISA 
FOR ILN; NEA; WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE; DOC FOR ITA/EUR/FR 
AND PASS USTR/PA; USINCEUR FOR PAO; NATO/PA; MOSCOW/PA; 
ROME/PA; USVIENNA FOR USDEL OSCE. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR FR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Iraq Middle East - Israel - 
Hamas 
PARIS - Thursday, March 16, 2006 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Iraq 
Middle East - Israel - Hamas 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
Today's demonstrations to protest against the government's 
youth employment legislation is the leading story today, but 
the exceptional profits made by a number of large French 
corporations leads in the economic press, with profits of 84 
billion euros registered for 2005, up by 27%. "Historic 
results" says Le Figaro Economie, while La Tribune's editorial 
supports the PM's idea of spreading employee participation in 
the benefits. Le Figaro's editorial for its part comments on 
"a bit of blue skies in the midst of an endless winter." But 
it also warns against the dangers of profitability, which 
makes these corporations highly attractive to corporate 
raiders. Separately, the French company Areva is noted as 
having lost its contract to build a nuclear plant in China, 
which is to go to Westinghouse. According to Le Figaro 
Economie, Areva is not ready to reveal enough of its 
technology, whereas the U.S. company "is ready to reveal its 
building plans." 
 
International news include the World Forum on Water in Mexico, 
front-paged in Le Monde, Iran's role in Iraq, the Moussaoui 
trial, and the situation in Palestine after the Israeli 
incursion into Jericho. The editorial in Le Monde is entitled 
"Abbas Humiliated." (See Part C) 
 
Liberation devotes a major report to the EU's concerns with 
energy security in connection with the G8 in Moscow. The 
report emphasizes the "disagreements among EU members" because 
of "economic and diplomatic national interests." But Les Echos 
reports that the U.S. and Russia are in agreement about 
commercial nuclear energy: "Washington's offer to developing 
nations is very clear: free access to commercial nuclear 
energy under the aegis of the IAEA, in exchange for renouncing 
to develop uranium enrichment technology. This is the same 
offer Moscow made to Iran in order to end that crisis." 
 
Liberation reports on its front-page that "Bush Wants Out of 
Iraq" (See Part C) and carries an op-ed by Jack Straw entitled 
"Iraq, Ballots, not Bullets." "I recently left Baghdad feeling 
optimistic. Iraq is at a turning point. and I believe it will 
come out on top. More and more Iraqis are turning to the 
electoral process. Iraqi security forces are increasingly 
taking over. They are today more numerous than the 
international forces. The transfer for the control of Iraq 
will be implemented when the Iraqi government will want it. A 
majority of Iraqis are determined not to let the terrorists 
have the upper hand." 
 
Agence France Presse wires report that "France is taking a low 
profile on Iraq and fears an American failure. "France...no 
longer wants to see the Americans leave, because the situation 
in Iraq could have terrible consequences for European 
security," says Antoine Basbous of the Observatory of Arab 
Countries. Didier Billion, of IRIS, says, "France didn't know 
how to capitalize, on the international chess board and in the 
Arab world, the fight it conducted in vain that it lead in the 
UN." 
 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Iraq 
 
"Bush Looking to Get Out of Iraq" 
Pascal Riche in left-of-center Liberation (03/16): "President 
Bush has committed to a new series of speeches in which he 
praises the `progress' made in Iraq. At first glance there is 
nothing new here, except that he and his administration are 
trying to prepare American public opinion to putting an end to 
an adventure which has proven to be disastrous. (In these 
speeches) the traditional enemies, `the foreign terrorists,' 
have disappeared from the scene, and with them one of the 
reasons for the U.S. presence in Iraq. President Bush spoke on 
Monday about a country that was on the `brink of chaos' but 
had not yet chosen to accept the plunge. The emphasis is on 
the notion of `choice' and this is not innocuous. It is a way 
of presenting the risks of `civil war' as an Iraqi domestic 
problem for which only the Iraqis have the solution. In his 
speech President Bush also insisted on the progress made in 
the training of Iraqi security forces, and indicated for the 
first time that `they should be controlling more of the Iraqi 
territory than the coalition by the end of 2006.' Bush in fact 
has no choice. His margin of maneuver is getting narrower. His 
exit strategy, an Iraqi union government, looked good on 
paper, but difficult to implement. More and more the 
prevailing idea is that `whether or not the occupation forces 
leave, the result is a civil war.' And so Washington is 
increasingly opting for leaving Iraq, spurred by American 
opinion. Many of Bush's Republican supporters are now turning 
their backs on the President. And so, as Senator Biden says, 
if things do not improve, `we will just have to declare game 
over.'" 
 
"In Baghdad, an Iranian Trojan Horse" 
Gorges Malbrunot in right-of-center Le Figaro (03/16): "Both 
the Americans and the Sunnis are after him. But Bayan Jabr 
will fight to the end to keep his position in Baghdad's 
Interior Ministry. He is the Trojan horse of the Shiite 
militia fighting the Sunni guerrilla. He embodies everything 
the Americans want to eradicate from the Iraqi security forces 
before they leave. They fear that the Iranians, Jabr's 
sponsors, will be pulling the strings once they are gone. 
Hence the U.S. efforts to open up the security forces to the 
Sunnis. before the Americans hand over the country's 
security." 
 
Middle East - Israel - Hamas 
 
"Abbas Humiliated" 
Left-of-center Le Monde in its editorial (03/16): "Kidnapping 
foreign citizens in the Palestinian territories is totally 
stupid. It is not by threatening humanitarian workers or 
journalists who are in the area to spread the word about he 
hardships that the people in Gaza face, that the Palestinian 
cause will be viewed positively. Beyond this fact the Jericho 
episode shows how isolated Palestine is. Olmert's `victory' is 
first and foremost a humiliation for the Palestinians, and 
above all for the leader of the Palestinian authority Mahmoud 
Abbas. Israel could give no clearer sign of how insignificant 
an interlocutor it considers him to be. The weak acceptance on 
the part of the international community - the U.S. and the EU 
- of the Israeli raid is also a cause for concern. We were led 
to believe that the `moderates' needed to be secured in their 
position since the victory of Hamas. Now these same moderates 
are ridiculed and no one is speaking up for them. How can we 
ask Palestinians to disarm their terrorist organizations and 
at the same time accept that Israel does whatever it wants on 
their territory? The Jericho incursion marks a new step in the 
slow destruction of the Palestinian Authority. Americans and 
Europeans alike have nothing to say and threaten the PA 
further with economic sanctions. They are taking the risk of 
undoing everything that has been achieved in over a decade, to 
add crisis to crisis and to fuel hatred of the West." 
 
"Abbas Discredited" 
Patrick Saint Paul in right-of-center Le Figaro (03/16): 
"Yesterday, the Palestinian leader was under the fire of 
criticism. The Israeli incursion into Jericho, which was a 
diplomatic disaster for him, emphasized both his lack of 
popularity and his weakness. The attack on the prison, on the 
heels of the flight of the British and American observers who 
were supposed to protect the prisoners, was a harsh blow to 
the credibility of President Abbas. By entering the only 
Palestinian city which managed to keep up a semblance of 
autonomy, the Israeli army was able to deprive the 
Palestinians of any remaining illusions about their 
sovereignty. The Palestinian moderates are watching Israel's 
unilateralism but remain speechless." STAPLETON