VZCZCXYZ0008
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDM #2636/01 1571418
ZNR UUUUU ZZH TAO

O 061418Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9432
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6006
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 3866
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2389
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7072
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1057
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4445
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0668
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 6809

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 002636 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PA, NEA/ARN, INR/IC/CD, INR/S:STHIBEAULT AND 
JMCCARTER, VOA NEWS CA, NEA/PPD:CBOURGEOIS, DBENZE AND 
AFERNANDEZ, IIP/G/NEA-SA RWINCHESTER 
WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC 
CENTCOM FOR CCPA 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: KMDR PREL KPAO OPRC SY
SUBJECT: Damascus Media Reaction: Syria/Palestinian Authority, 
Syria/Yemen, Syria/Ukraine, Terrorism in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, 
Iran, (6/6) 
 
 
¶1. Summary: Syrian papers today reported the visit to Damascus 
of Ahmad Qurei', Special Envoy of the President of the 
Palestinian National Authorit, who conferred with President Asad 
and conveyed a message from President Mahmoud Abbas about the 
latest developments in the Palestinian arena and the ongoing 
inter-Palestinian dialogue. President Asad emphasized the 
importance of enhancing Palestinian national unity, stressing 
Syria's support of the Palestinian people in the face of current 
challenges. For his part, Qurei underscored Syria's key role in 
the region, hailing her supportive positions for the 
Palestinians and on Arab issues in general. Qurei also conferred 
with Vice President Shara, who repeated Syria's keenness to 
boost Palestinian national unity on the basis of the Palestinian 
people's choices and firm national principles. Shara said: 
"These choices are the main guarantee to achieve the Palestinian 
people's legitimate ambitions to return home and establish their 
independent state with Jerusalem as its capital, as well as to 
reject all endeavors to sow seeds of discord among them." 
Subsequent to his talks in Damascus, Qurei made a press 
statement expressing the Palestinian people's high appreciation 
for Syria's principled, firm stances and its support on the 
Palestinian issue. Mr. Qurei pointed out that during the 
meetings he talked about the policy of isolation and segregation 
being practiced by the Israeli occupation authorities, Israel's 
policy of settlement expansion, the building of the racial 
segregation wall, and Israel's persistence in pursuing a 
unilateral solution. 
 
Papers also reported Vice President Shara's visit to Yemen and 
his meetings with Yemeni Vice President Abdo Rabo Mansour Hadi 
and Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Qurabi. Talks tackled the 
latest regional and international developments, the challenges 
facing the Arab nation and the importance of activating common 
Arab action in the interest of the Arab nation. 
 
On Lebanon, papers reported a statement by Hasan Nasrallah, 
SecGen of Hizbollah, stressing the importance of establishing the 
best of relations between Syria and Lebanon. In a press 
conference, Nasrallah rejected the discourse of escalation 
towards Syria launched by the so-called February 14 forces, 
saying that geographical and historical facts, as well as the 
political situation, require establishing excellent relations 
with Syria, which, in the first place, is in the interest of 
Lebanon. "All plots and campaigns targeting the Lebanese national 
resistance will not affect the firm will and the national 
commitment to the resistance, and he who thinks he can besiege 
resistance through discourse and behavior is mistaken," Nasrallah 
added. 
 
Headlines featured a statement by "The Beirut Homeland Assembly" 
stressing the necessity of adhering to constant national and 
pan-Arab principles based on strategic relations with Syria, 
commitment to resistance to liberate the occupied territories and 
rejecting foreign interference in Lebanese internal affairs. "The 
Lebanese people reject foreign mandate," the Assembly statement 
said, stressing that "Beirut is the homeland and it is not an 
abandoned country for whoever dreams to cancel its role and 
confiscate its rights." The statement also called for keeping the 
identity of Beirut as an Arab capital by improving relations with 
brotherly Arab countries, warning against the danger of the plots 
being hatched against Lebanon and the region. A member of the 
Political Bureau of the Syrian Social National Party, Hafez al- 
Saygh, stressed the necessity of establishing distinguished 
relations with Syria. He called on the Lebanese people to commit 
to national resistance to face the continued Israeli aggressions 
on Lebanon. For his part, Zaher al-Khatib, Secretary General of 
the Lebanese Federation of Workers, expressed commitment to the 
national resistance to confront the American-Zionist scheme. 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"President Asad receives a message from Mahmoud Abbas, President 
of the Palestinian Authority, on latest developments in the 
Palestinian arena. President Asad reviews with Qurei, Envoy of 
the Palestinian President, mutual cooperation and means of 
boosting Palestinian national unity. Qurei: We appreciate Syria's 
firm support of Palestinians and all Arab causes" (Government- 
owned Al-Thawra, 6/6) 
 
"Vice President Shara reviews latest regional and international 
developments and activation of common Arab action with Yemeni 
Vice President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 6/6) 
 
"Hasan Nasrallah, SecGen of Hizbollah, confirms spontaneity of 
popular anger about LBC TV Program that mocked him in person, 
holds LBC responsible for popular unrest, and responds to the 
February 14 powers: It is in the interest of Lebanon to establish 
excellent relations with Syria.... Nothing will weaken the 
resistance" (Government-owned Tishreen, 6/6) 
 
"First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Stanislav Stashevsky 
arrives in Damascus on an official visit to Syria to co-chair the 
4th Session of the Syrian-Ukrainian Committee for Economic 
Cooperation. Stashevsky stresses importance of existing relations 
with Syria, particularly the volume of trade, that totaled USD 
700 million last year" (Government-owned Tishreen, 6/6) 
 
"Mass demonstrations in Baghdad and Basra call for ending 
occupation of Iraq. Khalilzad [US Ambassador to Iraq]: Our 
mistakes are multiple, our choices are limited" (Government-owned 
Al-Ba'th, 6/6) 
 
"Javier Solana, High Representative for the Common Foreign and 
Security Policy and Secretary-General of the Council of the 
European Union, visits Tehran to deliver nuclear suggestions. 
Asefi [Spokesman of the Iranian Foreign Ministry]: The Boushahr 
nuclear station poses no threat" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 6/6) 
 
¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
------------------------- 
 
"Syria's Sleepless Eyes" 
 
 
------------------------- 
 
Muhammad Khair al-Jammali, an editorialist in government-owned 
Al-Thawra, commented (6/6): "Syria is coming under pressure and 
threats from rancorous forces because of its honorable national 
and pan-Arab positions.... The aim is to force Syria to abandon 
these positions and consequently facilitate the implementation 
of the hostile plans against the Arab region.... 
 
"When foreign conspiracies fail to break Syria's will and firm 
rejection of the plans that seek to violate Arab territory and 
confiscate the Arabs' freedom and legitimate ambitions to 
liberate their occupied lands and ensure their independence and 
stability, these forces work to destabilize Syria through the 
use of deviant and misguided people whose hatred has blinded 
them to the right path and who, consequently, agreed to serve as 
cheap tools in the hands of these forces, practicing terrorism 
upon foreign orders, since terrorism is the shortest way and the 
easiest and most malicious method to harm Syria's stability and 
its rejection of the policies of occupation, hegemony, and 
blackmail.... 
 
"The acts of terror that take place in Syria from time to time 
embody the ugliest forms of this plotting, which is planned 
abroad and implemented by agent puppets supported by vengeful 
forces in the neighborhood.... These terrorist acts coincide 
with the intensifying crisis of the forces of the neocolonialist 
scheme that seek to tighten Zionist-American control on the 
region.... 
 
"This shows that the forces that stand behind these terrorist 
acts are the forces that are facing the crisis that is foiling 
their Middle East Scheme, from Iraq to Palestine to Lebanon to 
Sudan, and with them, naturally, the forces that collude with 
them in the region. 
 
"Syria, through its national cohesion, will foil these plans and 
maintain its stability and security...." 
 
------------------------------- 
 
"Well-Trained and Disciplined!" 
 
------------------------------- 
 
Mohamed Zein, an editorialist in government-owned Syria Times, 
commented (6/6): "Recent massacres committed in cold blood by US 
occupation troops against Iraqi civilians in Haditha and Ishaqi 
and earlier in al-Qaem, Samurra, Falluja and Mosel are 
additional crimes perpetrated in the war-torn Arab country. 
 
"Some US officials 'deplored' the deliberate killing of children 
and women as a 'technical mistake,' while others say the US 
troops are 'well-trained and disciplined' and carry out their 
national duty with dignity in defense of freedom and democracy. 
 
"The outrageous officials also said that while the 
'professional' troops were tailing 'terrorists,' they came 
across some civilians and had no choice except to follow the 
'mission' and kill those civilians, lest they should be 
converted later into 'terrorists.' Such a mistake should not 
overwhelm great endeavors made by US marines who came to defend 
America's honor in Iraq, they added. 
 
"Some other US officials, who acquitted the killers, confirmed 
that there are no 'clean wars' and promised that the troops need 
some new culture in adopting legal and moralistic principles in 
battlefields. 
 
"Past and recent experiences show that US wars launched against 
various nations have never been clean, but dirty and totally 
unjustifiable. Throughout those wars, the US army has certainly 
had ample training, discipline and professionalism. But aren't 
these experiences, manifested through killing, destruction, 
torture, oppression and human right violations,in sum, the 
professionalism of the invading US armies? With very few 
exceptions, such doctrines and practices are undoubtedly what 
the army has always been told to carry out during its 
'missions.' 
 
"People are fed up with US occupation, aggression, intervention 
and threats that have claimed thousands of innocent lives, and 
they no longer tolerate Washington's lies about freedom, 
democracy and protection of human rights. 
 
"The time is now right for US decision-makers, more than ever 
before, to stop the flagrant policy and to give up tyranny and 
arrogance before the US image is further distorted and US 
credibility is further undermined by the ruling neo-conservative 
junta. 
 
"In the interests of Americans and nations across the world, 
will things be put on the right course before it is too late?" 
 
Seche