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DE RUEHDM #3999/01 2271400
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O 151400Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 0967
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6184
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 4026
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4597
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0814
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 6953

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 003999 
 
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: Asad, Nasrallah, Olmert, 
Syria/Germany (8/15) 
 
 
¶1.  Summary: Syrian papers today reported that President Asad 
will deliver a speech focusing on the latest political 
developments in the region at the inauguration of the Fourth 
General Conference of the Syrian Journalists Union. 
 
Papers also featured a televised speech by Hassan Nasrallah, 
SecGen of Hezbollah. Nasrallah hailed Hezbollah fighters, 
stressing that Lebanon has never before witnessed such a 
destruction of houses and infrastructure. He thanked all who 
helped the displaced Lebanese and said, "we will take the 
initiative to repair all damaged houses and give a hand to their 
owners as soon as possible."  Nasrallah said that talk about 
Hizbollah's arms demands great responsibility and keenness. "It 
is not in the interest of Lebanon to shift discussion about 
sensitive things from closed-door rooms to open dialogue; this is 
a big mistake. We refuse to enter into disputes that don't serve 
Lebanon's interest," he added. He stressed that the resistance 
has achieved victory and said that those who want to disarm the 
resistance are going far beyond what the US and Israel have 
demanded from Lebanon and that the Lebanese army and 
international troops are incapable of protecting Lebanon against 
any Israeli assault. Nasrallah said that the coming days will 
uncover the losses of the enemy. He stressed that Lebanon's power 
lies in its resistance and national unity and called for 
resumption of national dialogue. 
 
Papers also reported a special session by the Israeli Knesset 
during which Israeli PM Olmert acknowledged that Israel has 
received painful and tough blows during its aggression against 
Lebanon, pointing out that the missiles of the Lebanese 
resistance caused Israel great losses and made Israel pay dearly 
for its aggression. Olmert held himself responsible for the war 
against Lebanon, and stressed that he will continue to pursue 
Hizbollah's members at all times and in all places. "I will not 
ask permission from anybody to do that" he claimed, describing 
UNSC Resolution 1701 as a political achievement for Israel. 
 
Papers also reported that Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. 
Faisal al-Miqdad discussed the latest developments in the Middle 
East and the Israeli aggression against Lebanon and Israeli 
practices against the Palestinian people with Rolf Mutzenich and 
Neils Annen, members of the Foreign Relations Committee of the 
German Parliament.  Dr. Miqdad briefed the German MPs on Syrian 
policy vis-a-vis the situation in the region, confirming that 
continuing Israeli occupation is the basis of problems in the 
region.  The MPs thanked Syria for facilitating the evacuation 
of German nationals from Lebanon through Syrian territory. They 
also voiced interest in continuing contacts between Germany and 
Syria, and in seeing Germany and Europe play a constructive role 
in establishing a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle 
East. 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
"President Asad today delivers a speech before the Journalists 
Union Conference on latest political developments in the region" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 8/15) 
"Nasrallah, Hizbollah SecGen: We achieved a strategic victory for 
Lebanon and the Arab nation [Umma]; talk about dismantling the 
arms of the resistance is harmful and exceeds the enemy's 
demands" (Government-owned Tishreen, 8/15) 
"The questioning stage commences in Israel. Israeli PM Olmert 
acknowledges painful blows from the national resistance. Israeli 
calls for investigation committees" (Government-owned Tishreen, 
8/15) 
"Displaced Lebanese start to return to their homes. The enemy 
leaves behind presents for Lebanon's children: mines and cluster 
bombs" (Government-owned Tishreen, 8/15) 
"PM Otri reviews with a delegation of Arab engineers their role 
in rebuilding Lebanon" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 8/15) 
"Information Minister Bilal: Israel responds to peace initiatives 
with more terrorism and massacres" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 
8/15) 
"Berri, [Speaker of Lebanese Parliament]: We stand in one trench 
with the national resistance. Former Lebanese PM Hoss: The 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
----------------------------- 
 
"A Heavy Price for Aggression" 
 
----------------------------- 
 
Muhammad Khayr al-Jammali, an editorialist in government-owned 
Al-Thawra, wrote (8/15): "Israel has paid a very heavy price for 
its war against Lebanon.... 
 
"Illusions of power and arrogance led Olmert's government far 
from reality. It believed that its war against the Resistance 
would take three days to one week at the longest to accomplish 
all its objectives, namely, liquidating the Resistance and 
removing its threat and arranging the situation in Lebanon in 
line with the new Middle East plan, to the point where Lebanon 
would be forced to sign a new capitulation agreement posing a 
more serious threat to Lebanon, its national and pan-Arab role, 
and its historical relations with fraternal Syria and its Arab 
surroundings than the threat posed by the 17 May 1983 agreement, 
which was imposed on Lebanon under the spears of the Israeli 
occupation. 
 
"That was Israel's major strategic mistake, because no army, now 
matter how powerful, can win a war with an unyielding organized 
resistance with the will to fight and stand fast...." 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
"The Valiant Resistance and Some of its Great Lessons" 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
 
Khalaf al-Jarrad, Chief Editor of government-owned Tishreen, 
wrote (8/15): "Condoleezza Rice revealed that the main goal of 
the war against Lebanon was giving birth to a 'new Middle East' 
by caesarian section through the 'invincible Israeli army.' 
Having done that, she again tried to help Israelis get over 
their faltering operation. However, giving them extensions of 
one week after another did them no good, for the baby--the new 
Middle Rift [the writer uses the word "sharkh" meaning rift, 
instead of "sharq" meaning East]--died before seeing 
daylight.... 
 
"We bet that the Zionist leadership, which has lost its mind, 
has committed a fatal strategic mistake by expanding its ground 
offensive on Lebanese soil. In fact, we can say for sure that it 
has taken a suicidal step for its army, which will deploy 
further north to the Litani River, and it might go beyond it to 
fall into the trap of the resistance. At that point, hundreds of 
Israeli soldiers will find themselves and their tanks in 
ambushes and faced by acts of confrontation and surprise 
attacks. The Zionist army will not leave the 'Lebanese quagmire' 
crowned with laurels, as its leaders dream. Instead, it will 
leave covered with disgrace, defeat, and shame." 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
"The Baby Has Been Born Disfigured" 
 
----------------------------------- 
 
Abbud As'ad Abbud, an editorialist in government-owned Al- 
Thawra, wrote (8/15): "Resolution 1701 is one of the greatest 
acts of collusion in history, a resolution containing every form 
of verbal, [human] rights, and hazy trickery to give 
opportunities for revenge and to complete the commission of the 
crime. 
 
 
"But all of this trickery, collusion, and plotting has not 
always been in Israel's favor. On the contrary, sometimes it has 
been counter to its interests.  Israel surprised its fans and 
supporters among those engineering the resolution that its 
capacity for revenge and vengeance was not at the previous 
level, but was even greater. And it surprised Arabs that their 
ability to reject oppression and to resist is far greater than 
Israel's capabilities. 
 
"Mr. Kofi Annan, I respect your pain that the United Nations, 
represented by the Security Council, was not able to agree on 
stopping the aggression against Lebanon until after the passage 
of a whole month. This is what you announced during the session 
of the collusive resolution. And I respect the pain that you did 
not announce, sir, that you were still convinced that this is 
the United Nations that must be. I believe it is the right of 
the oppressed peoples on Earth to create another organization of 
nations. Perhaps it will be able to keep them safe from US 
hegemony and oppression. 
 
"As for the delivery of Dr. Condoleezza Rice, who understood the 
labor pains earlier, I console her on the baby, it was born 
deformed.... 
 
Have we won? Yes and, perhaps, it is the greatest victory in 
Arab history.... We are the ones who have created Israel. We 
created our affliction with our own hands.  Who claims that 
Israel is a state that cannot be defeated?  Who claims that its 
army is the strongest army in the world?  It is Arabs, since 
they let Israel practically leave them behind and triumph over 
them in every battle.... 
 
"Today we are on the threshold of new horizons with new givens 
and truths that have been confirmed by the Hizbollah fighters. 
It is a victory that is not influenced (and will not be 
influenced) by fighters sitting down on the banks of the Litani 
or on the banks of the Mediterranean.  Has Hizbollah ever 
mentioned that its cultural concept of resistance stops at the 
boundary of a river or a sea? 
 
"Oh you Israelis, you have won by international collusion but 
the illusion has fallen.  We have exchanged places.  So go look 
for the illusion of victory and Rice's disfigured baby while we 
celebrate for the resistance and for the new truths...." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
"A Perspective: 1701 and the International Quagmire" 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
Charles Kamleh, an op-ed writer in government-owned Tishreen, 
wrote (8/15): "One who views the details of UNSC Resolution 1701 
discovers without any great effort or abundance of intelligence 
its shortcomings, which are hidden under the guise of the 
deceptive humanitarian scene. It leads to a result that says 
that the pressures that Washington and Paris have exerted to 
come up with a resolution such as this were, in effect, an 
acknowledgment of the failure to achieve the objective or policy 
of the aggression on the battlefield. [That objective] is to 
make the war a Lebanese-Lebanese war, in addition to setting the 
stage for accomplishing the US-Israeli plan.... 
 
"This resolution is a diplomatic achievement that serves 
Israel's interests.... It has absolutely absolved Israel of the 
consequences of its war crimes.... 
 
"Did the resolution deal with the heart of the conflict?  With 
Shab'a Farms, for example, or the file of the Lebanese prisoners 
in parallel with the Israeli prisoners?  Did it deal with the 
issue of compensation for the losses that Lebanon has suffered 
because of this US-Israeli civilization?  Moreover, there is the 
resolution's intentional neglect of the issue of holding Israel 
accountable for its mass crimes. 
 
"The limitless justification of any of Israel's measures under 
the banner of self defense is an international shortcoming that 
Israel uses whenever it wants.  So the observer cannot but say 
that Resolution 1701 has not been an international resolution, 
but an Israeli-US resolution carried out by the United Nations in 
the manner of Resolution 1559...." 
 
-------------------- 
 
"The Resistance Era" 
 
-------------------- 
 
Omar Jaftali, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, 
wrote (8/15):  "When Israeli Foreign Minister Livni says that no 
power on earth can disarm Hizbollah, she is, no doubt, talking 
about a bitter Israeli experience that Israel has not faced 
since the glorious October war about 33 years ago. The Israeli 
Minister is most aware of the military defeat Israel has 
suffered, despite its huge army equipped with the most developed 
and deadly and conventional weapons. Nevertheless, this army has 
failed in the real test, where the flexing of muscles was 
useless without a confrontation in the field.... The enemy was 
the first to admit before the media that only fighters with 
excellent fighting experience and high resolve could engage in 
this type and method of fighting.... 
"Therefore, it is possible to say that we are experiencing the 
resistance era par excellence, the era of glowing Arab anger 
against the neo-imperialist protectors of Israel, who must have 
been shocked to see the humiliation of their protege, which they 
created to serve as their disciplining stick in the region. 
 
Corbin