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O 020615Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY AMMAN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4531
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RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE 0444
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE 1373
RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE
RUMICEA/USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA// IMMEDIATE

UNCLAS AMMAN 007522 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR, I/GNEA, B/BXN, 
B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN 
USAID/ANE/MEA 
LONDON FOR TSOU 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO
 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON SECSTATE VISIT TO REGION 
 
Editorial Commentary 
 
-- "Rice's mission: solution or escalation?" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Odwan writes on the back-page of independent, 
mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm (10/01): "It is no secret 
that Rice's new mission will address two issues.  The first is 
activating the Palestinian-Israeli track, and the second is the 
Iranian nuclear file.  The link between the two files is inevitable, 
because what Washington is proposing is very clear: an American 
movement on the Palestinian track in return for a regional Arab 
alliance supportive of it in its confrontation with Iran.  We do 
believe that the objective of Rice's mission is to mobilize the 
Arabs against Iran, but we do not believe at all that there is an 
American intent or willingness to resolve the Middle East cause. 
Since we saw Rice roaming the region during the war on Lebanon and 
refusing an immediate ceasefire while announcing a new Middle East 
to rise from the ashes and destruction, it has become our right to 
be skeptical of her new mission that is connecting between the 
nuclear file and standing up to the axis of Tehran, Damascus, 
Hizbollah and the Hamas government on one hand, and a movement to 
resolve that Palestinian cause on the other.  We do not believe 
because we have already heard and saw a similar thing before the 
occupation and destruction of Iraq....  Rice's new mission is doomed 
to failure because the expected foreign ministers meeting is not 
going to include Palestine, Syria and Lebanon.  How is the peace 
process going to be revitalized with the absence with the main 
parties, and even more, with America's rejection of a dialogue with 
these parties and considering them 'part of the enemy'.  The problem 
with the American diplomacy in the region is that it is designed for 
confrontation and not dialogue, for clashes not breakthroughs, for 
hot and cold wars and not pushing people towards negotiations and 
coexistence." 
 
-- "The objective behind Rice's tour is not to consult but to 
dictate" 
 
Columnist George Haddad writes on the op-ed page of center-left, 
influential Arabic daily Ad-Dustour (10/01): "Through Rice's tour 
that begins tomorrow, the Bush administration wants to tell the 
moderate Arab leaders that resolving the Palestinian crisis is 
subject to the ability to besiege the Palestinian 'extremism' and 
its sponsors like the Syrian regime, Iran and the Lebanese 
resistance.  In other more direct and clearer words, Rice is not 
doing her tour to 'consult with a number of people' but rather to 
explain the American position and to demand abidance by it when it 
comes to the two issues: Iran's nuclear issue and movement on the 
Palestinian track.  Rice comes not to listen and consult, but to set 
conditions for the moderate Arabs." 
 
-- "What does Rice have up her sleeve?" 
 
Columnist Ramadan Rawashdeh writes on the op-ed page of 
semi-influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (10/01): "U.S. Secretary of 
State Rice may have ideas and her tour may be a public relations 
tour, but at the end of the day, she and the U.S. administration are 
responsible for what is happening in the region and what might 
happen in the future as a result of the frustration that is 
prevalent in Arab countries.  The U.S. Secretary would mistaken if 
she thinks that Iran is a priority for the Arabs.  It is not.  The 
priority for the Arabs is resolving the Palestinian issue and 
putting an end to the American occupation of Iraq." 
 
-- "Rice deals with Arabs as mediators and not as relevant parties" 
 
Columnist Sultan Hattab writes on the op-ed page of semi-official, 
influential Arabic daily Al-Rai (10/01): "The U.S. administration, 
whose policy in the region is being translated by Rice, must change 
its working methods that have been tried and led to only more 
complications and chaos, and there are ample examples of that in 
Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan and Lebanon, and who knows where else. 
It is not right that we pay the cost of the mistakes of the American 
policy or that we be part of it when we can see that this policy is 
resulting only igniting more and more fires and conflicts.  This 
administration must hear out voices other than those of Israel and 
must see that its interests in the region lie not just with Israel. 
The Arabs must know, at least once, that this policy that is 
exercised against them and in the region does not serve their 
interests and the interests of their people and the stability of 
their countries.  It has been proven that friendship with the United 
States is costly, and might entail more cost sometimes than the cost 
of opposing or rejecting these policies." 
HALE