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DE RUEHDM #3658/01 2070908
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O 260908Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0564
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6132
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 3975
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2515
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7173
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1162
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4548
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0767
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 6906

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003658 
 
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: Israeli Operation in Lebanon, 
Palestinian Territories, Iraq (7/25) 
 
 
¶1.  Summary: The Israeli military operation in Lebanon remained 
the major topic in the Syrian press. Papers reported that 
President Asad received telephone calls from UN Secretary 
General Kofi Annan and Greek Socialist Party leader George 
Panadreou, which focused on latest developments in Lebanon and 
ongoing contacts to end the continuing Israeli aggression there. 
 
Papers also reported that Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel 
Moratinos said during a meeting with Syrian Information Minister 
Muhsen Bilal that his country will work with Syria at the 
upcoming Rome Conference to revive the peace process as one 
package deal including Shebaa Farms and the occupied Syrian 
Golan. 
Papers also reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al- 
Mouallem received a phone call from Malaysian Foreign Minister 
Sayed Hamid Albar, who expressed his country's support to the 
steadfastness of the Lebanese and Palestinian people in 
confronting Israeli aggression. The Malaysian Minister, whose 
country is the current president of the Non-Aligned Movement 
(NAM) and the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), 
briefed Minister al-Mouallem on the Malaysian government's 
efforts, on behalf of the NAM and the OIC, to reach a ceasefire 
and pave the way for diplomatic efforts to establish a just and 
comprehensive peace in the Middle East as the only way to bring 
about security and stability in the region. 
 
Papers also reported that the United Nations Organization in 
Syria filed an urgent petition for donors to provide more than 
$ 13.6 million as part of the financial aid needed to continue 
extending humanitarian aid to displaced Lebanese civilians in 
Syria.  In a statement issued in Damascus, the UN group said "the 
needed contributions would meet the increased demands of the 
Lebanese who have fled to Syria, and will boost the organization 
and the other humanitarian organizations in doing their relief 
duties with more effectiveness." It hoped the appeal would draw a 
"quick response," and thus spur donors to do their duties in 
meeting persistent and urgent humanitarian needs. The 
announcement said the number of Lebanese who have fled to Syria 
is about 160,000, and is increasing by the hour. 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"President Asad receives two telephone calls, from UN Secretary 
General Kofi Annan and President of the Greek Socialist Party 
George Papandreau on current contacts to stop the Israeli 
aggression against Lebanon" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/25) 
 
"Syrian-Spanish talks on the explosive situation in the region. 
Foreign Minister Moratinos: The package of Syrian ideas will be 
raised at the Rome Conference" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 7/25) 
 
"Foreign Minister al-Mouallem reviews with Malaysian Foreign 
Minister AlBar efforts of the Non-Aligned Countries and Islamic 
Conference for a ceasefire in Lebanon" (Government-owned Al- 
Thawra, 7/25) 
 
"Lebanese national resistance receives US Secretary of State Rice 
by destroying 5 Israeli tanks and downing an Apache. The 
resistance shells Haifa, killing and injuring 27 Israelis. US 
Secretary of State Rice holds a strained meeting with Speaker of 
 
SIPDIS 
Lebanese Parliament Berri" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 7/25) 
 
"Nasrallah: The Enemy has failed to achieve its goals; the Maroun 
al-Ras battle showed its weakness before the national resistance" 
(Government-owned Al-Thawra, 7/25) 
 
"The UN calls for urgent humanitarian aid to Lebanon. Over 
160,000 Lebanese refugees are in Syria" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 7/25) 
 
"Syria provides Lebanon with electricity around the clock. Over 
120 tons of additional Syrian aid dispatched to Lebanon" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 7/25) 
 
"Six Palestinians killed in Israeli shelling of Gaza.  Israel 
shells Lebanese village Kafer Shouba with phosphorus bombs" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 7/25) 
"Scores of Iraqis victimized by terrorist attacks. Academy of 
Moslem Scholars holds the occupation responsible for the 
deteriorating security situation" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 
5/25) 
 ¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 --------------------- 
 
"Theory of Adventure" 
 
--------------------- 
 
Abdul-Fattah al-Awad, Chief Editor of government-owned Al- 
Thawra, wrote (7/25): "Isolating Syria is not at all 
possible.... It is impossible to ignore the Syrian role because 
this role is associated with a vision that proved right.... 
 
"The new Middle East that Washington is promoting is a Middle 
East without resistance against Israel.... But the logic of 
history does not accept an occupation without resistance.... 
Relying on force to draw new maps using Israeli pencils is 
doomed to failure because similar experiences have brought dire 
consequences for the advocates of this logic.... 
"The US still insists on continuing the Israeli destruction of 
Lebanon.... Until recently, the American band was playing the 
tunes of Lebanon's 'sovereignty and independence', but today it 
is beating the drums of war and dancing to their tune.... Those 
who accept the American positions agree, in fact, to work as 
paid laborers in the new Middle East project, which carries 
within itself the seeds of failure because it is based on 
unethical and unrealistic principles. 
 
"Instead of talking about a solution that would end the pains 
and suffering of the Lebanese, they promise us a new Middle 
East, while insisting on the continuation of the barbaric 
aggression that Israel is launching amid international hypocrisy 
and a defeatist Arab position. Therefore, all meetings, 
conferences, and emissaries that do not place the end of the 
Israeli aggression at the top of their agendas will be useless. 
The beginning point is the end of the aggression and the 
exchange of prisoners. The genuine, realistic, and final 
solution is the one that discusses the core of the conflict in 
the region, represented by the arrogant and American-backed 
Israeli occupation." 
 
------------- 
 
"US Illusion" 
 
------------- 
 
Muhammad Khair al-Jamali, an editorialist in government-owned Al- 
Thawra, said (7/25): "Washington still harbors the illusion of 
redrawing the Middle East map despite the failure of this 
illusion in Iraq.... 
 
"The new Middle East that Rice is promising is a deformed, 
fragile, and flimsy Middle East that is open to the hegemony of 
Zionist-American power. In this new Middle East there is no 
place for the will of countries or the resistance of nations. It 
must remain silent on the occupation and believe the lies that 
Israel and the United States promote about terrorism and the 
attempts they make to obliterate the facts of the conflict and 
disregard the reasons of its explosion in Palestine, Lebanon, 
and Iraq, foremost among which are the American occupation of 
Iraq and the continuation of the Israeli occupation of the 
Palestinian territories, the Golan, and parts of south 
Lebanon.... 
 
"Rice is wrong in her belief that the barbarism of the Israeli 
aggression can lead to a new Middle East.... The tragic results 
of this aggression will turn the entire Arab people into a 
 
resistance believing that resistance is their only way to end 
the occupation and confront the policy of hegemony.... Israel's 
involvement in the implementation of the American new Middle 
East plan makes the United States a stable partner of Israel in 
its aggression against Arabs, which will heighten Arab hatred 
towards the US and its policy and, consequently, further 
endanger American interests in the region." 
 
---------------------------------- 
 
"Partners in Crime and Aggression" 
 
---------------------------------- 
 
Charles Kamleh, a columnist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(7/25): "When the US provides Israel with laser-guided bombs to 
destroy targets deep underground, it effectively enters the 
battle and becomes a party to the aggression and the crime. This 
being the case, there is no meaning in any US diplomatic 
action.... 
 
"If the international conference, that will be held in Rome on 
July 26 to discuss the Lebanese crisis, intends to discuss the 
crisis of the aggression and at the same time excludes central 
countries that cannot be passed over and without whose 
participation and approval no lasting and comprehensive solution 
can be reached, then the most that such a conference can do is 
strengthen the position of the aggressor or try to bring him out 
of his crisis through the imposition of the conditions that the 
aggression failed to impose by force...." 
 
Seche