VZCZCXYZ0045
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDM #3043/01 1731500
ZNR UUUUU ZZH (508)
O 221500Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9891
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6049
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 3908
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2435
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7106
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1095
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4481
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0704
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 6843

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003043 
 
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/Jordan, OIC Ministerial, 
Syria/Russian, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories (6/22) 
 
 
¶1.  Summary: Syrian papers reported that President Asad on 
Wednesday made a telephone call to His Majesty King Abdullah II 
of Jordan and that they discussed bilateral relations between 
the two sisterly countries. Talks also dealt with preparation 
for the meeting of the Syrian-Jordanian Higher Joint Committee 
which is scheduled to occur in Damascus by the end of the month. 
 
The papers also reported the final statement of the OIC 
Ministerial meeting held in Baku, Azerbaijan. The OIC Foreign 
Ministers called for ending the occupation of the Golan and other 
Arab territories. They also expressed solidarity with Syria and 
called on the US Administration to enter with good intentions 
into a dialogue with Syria and to reconsider the Syria 
Accountability Act. 
 
Papers also reported the visit to Moscow by Yarub Badr, Syrian 
Minister of Transportation, and his meeting with Igor Ivanov, 
Secretary General of the Russian National Security Council. 
 
SIPDIS 
Minister Badr confirmed that Syria is serious about purchasing 
three new passenger jets from Russia. 
 
Papers also reported the Lebanese denunciation of France's 
refusal to invite President Lahoud to the Francophone Conference 
in Romania. 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"President Asad talks on the phone with King Abdullah II. Talks 
focus on bilateral relations and preparations for the meeting of 
the Syrian-Jordanian Higher Joint Committee" (Government-owned Al- 
Ba'th, 6/22) 
 
"The OIC Ministerial calls for a full Israeli pullout from the 
Golan and all occupied Arab territories: We express solidarity 
with Syria and reject US sanctions against it" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 6/22) 
 
"Russia emphasizes cooperation with Syria. Ivanov: We are ready 
to carry out all agreements. Badr [Syrian Minister of 
Transportation]: Our decision to buy Russian planes is serious" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 6/22) 
 
"Lebanese anger at French position and foreign intervention. 
Lahoud: I will continue to defend Lebanon's dignity" (Government- 
owned Tishreen, 6/22) 
 
"Annan calls on Israel to respect international law. Two 
Palestinians martyred in Khan Yunis and Nablus. Olmert threatens 
to liquidate HAMAS Ministers" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 6/22) 
 
"Europeans urge Bush to adopt a less stringent position. 
Austrians describe Bush as 'number 1 world terrorist'" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 6/22) 
 
"One of Saddam's lawyers is assassinated. Gunmen kidnap a hundred 
Iraqi employees. The Iraqi Parliament calls on Washington to 
investigate the Ba'quba massacre" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 
6/22) 
 
 
¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
---------------------- 
 
"Palestinian Dialogue" 
 
---------------------- 
 
Jamal al-Zu'bi, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Ba'th, 
wrote (6/22): "Palestinians must safeguard their national unity 
and avoid splits and differences so that they can confront the 
organized genocidal war against them and achieve their national 
objectives. The inter-Palestinian dialogue must continue, in 
order to end the political and financial crisis and to draw up a 
unified Palestinian policy... 
 
 
"We must give the national interest precedence over secondary 
interests and conflicts because the winners in such conflicts 
will stay, along with the losers, in the same prison, which is 
surrounded by the guns of the occupation and threatened by the 
tanks and missiles of the occupation...." 
 
----------------------------------------- 
 
"Lebanese Resistance and Lebanese Agents" 
 
----------------------------------------- 
 
Khalid al-Ashhab, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra, 
wrote (6/22): "Does anyone still believe the private agents of 
the American 'creative instability' theory in the Arab region, 
particularly in Lebanon, who, for more than a year, have 
continued to promote a big lie and raise the slogans of 
democracy, sovereignty, and independence.... 
 
"Those who deceived the Lebanese people and dragged them toward 
an acute crisis in economy, politics, and national accord, must 
prepare for their defeat, as the United States, the mother 
company, is about to go bankrupt in its second subversive 
investment in the Arab region (Lebanon), while its first 
investment in Iraq is on the brink of the abyss.... 
 
"The Lebanese have the right today to avenge their bitter and 
miserable living conditions and to take revenge against those 
who sold them in the bartering of freedom and sovereignty. The 
Lebanese -- and they are the pioneers of resistance and the 
champions of its most refined model -- have the right to hold 
those people to account for what they did and are still doing to 
them, in words and deeds: deception, humiliation, and impotence. 
They have the right to ask them what remains of the assets of 
freedom, sovereignty, and dignified life that those people 
claimed to have deposited in the name of Lebanon and the 
Lebanese in the American, French, and even Israeli political 
banks. This is the least the Lebanese can do...." 
 
----------------------- 
 
"One Knife, One Victim" 
 
----------------------- 
 
Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, 
commented (6/22): "The Japanese prime minister did well when he 
announced that Japanese forces will be withdrawn from Iraq, thus 
joining Italy, Spain, and many other countries that have 
discovered the deception they were subjected to when they 
participated in the genocidal war that the United States and 
Britain are waging against the Iraqi people.... 
 
"All the excuses that the United States has offered to justify 
the war on Iraq proved to be lies.... The developments in Iraq, 
from Abu Ghurayb to Hadithah and Ba'qubah, Al-Anbar, and other 
regions, have proven that human rights violations were committed 
in the worst forms, matched only by the violations of the 
Israeli occupation authorities against the Palestinian people. 
It is as if what is happening in Iraq is a copy of what is 
happening in Palestine. The knife is the same and the victims 
are the Arab people, and it is premeditated slaughter... 
 
"Perhaps the US warplanes' bombing of houses over the heads of 
their occupants, as happened yesterday, for example, is a Xerox 
copy of the bombing of houses over the heads of their occupants 
in Gaza by the American-made Israeli planes. What happened in 
Abu Ghurayb also happened and is happening in Israeli detention 
camps. The examples that show full similarity between Israel's 
crimes and what the American forces are doing are countless...." 
 
----------------------------- 
 
"Europe: Leaders and Peoples" 
 
----------------------------- 
 
Hanan Hamad, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(6/22): "The Abu Ghurayb and Guantanamo curse pursues President 
Bush wherever he travels, and will receive him in Vienna.... 
"President Bush will be received in Europe not only by thousands 
of demonstrators, but also with criticism from European leaders 
of the CIA secret flights over Europe. These protests will 
certainly cast a negative shadow on the objectives of the US 
president's visit...." 
 
Seche