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DE RUEHDM #5026/01 2921222
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O 191222Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2127
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6322
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 4135
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2721
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7322
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1339
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4702
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 0917
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 7053

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 005026 
 
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:  MEPP, Palestinian Developments, 
Putin/Olmert, Lebanon, Iraq (10/17 -10/19) 
¶1.  Summary:  The Syrian press between October 17 - 19, covered the 
following issues: 
 
President Asad met with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel 
Moratinos on Sunday. Papers quoted Moratinos as saying that "Syria 
is part of the solution rather than the problem." 
 
President Asad held an Iftar on Sunday and gave a speech to Syrian 
clerics, in which he called on clerics to confront the distortion 
which Islam is encountering, through dialogue and wisdom. 
 
In a meeting with the head of the Political Department of the 
Palestinian Liberation Organization, Farouq Qadoumi, President Assad 
stressed the importance of Palestinian national unity and the 
continuation of inter-Palestinian dialogue to achieve the ultimate 
goals of the Palestinian people, mainly ending the Israeli 
occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state with 
Jerusalem as its capital. 
 
President Asad also met with Egypt's Intelligence Chief, Omar 
Suleiman, who delivered a letter from Mubarak which dealt with 
bilateral relations and developments in the region. 
 
Papers also covered a meeting between the Palestinian Minister of 
Interior and his Syrian counterpart, who renewed Syria's support of 
Palestinian national unity. 
 
Chief of Staff Ali Habib underlined on Wednesday that stability in 
the region cannot be achieved without Syria, as it has becomes a 
symbol for all free and honorable men of the nation. 
Papers also featured a celebration for graduates from the Syrian 
Navy Academy, and an address by Major General Ali Habib emphasizing 
that Syria will not bargain on her principles and will always call 
resistance a legitimate act and will always consider terrorism a 
rejected act. 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
"President Asad reviews with Moratinos the situation in the region, 
Syrian-Spanish relations and the European vision regarding launching 
the peace process (Government-owned Tishreen, 10/15) 
 
"President Asad receives a letter from President Mubarak about 
bilateral relations" (Government-owned Tishreen, 10/16) 
 
"Moratinos:  Syria is part of the solution, no peace without her" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 10/16) 
 
"President Asad reiterates to Qadoumi the importance of resuming 
dialogue and enhancing Palestinian national unity (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 10/16) 
"Under the patronage of President Asad a new batch of Naval Academy 
cadets graduates in Lattakia.  Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Ali Habib: 
Syria will not relinquish its firm principles" 
"Russian President Putin discusses issues in the Middle East and 
Iran with Olmert, reiterating the importance of establishing a just 
and comprehensive peace" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 10/19) 
"President Emile Lahoud calls on the UN to play a neutral 
role.  Lebanese condemnations of foreign intervention in Lebanon 
continue" (Government-owned Tishreen, 10/19 
"Lebanese President Lahoud:  Lebanon is paying the price of foreign 
interventions.  Speaker of Lebanese Parliament Berri stresses 
necessity of forming a new national unity government" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 10/18) 
 
"Killing of ten US soldiers in Iraq within 24 hours.  The White 
House:  Rising US casualties will not change our policy" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 10/19) 
 
"19 Palestinians martyred and injured in Gaza in the ongoing Israeli 
aggression.  Israel threatens to invade the West Bank:  We will not 
permit a new Lebanon" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 10/18) 
 
"President Bush signs a law allowing the torture of prisoners under 
the claim that it protects the US from terrorists" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 10/18) 
 
 
 
"In light of growing expectation of a second nuclear test, the US 
and North Korea exchange threats of war" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 
10/18) 
 
"A Jordanian committee calls for boycott of Israeli products" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 10/18) 
 
¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
----------------------------------------- 
"Will Israel Change its Aggressive Skin?" 
----------------------------------------- 
Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, said 
(10/18):  "The Israeli Defense Minister's threats against Syria, 
Lebanon, and Gaza are not new or surprising.  But the fact that the 
threats were made in the Israeli Knesset indicates that the majority 
of Israelis adopt this hostile discourse and know only the language 
of force, wars, and bloodshed.... 
"Israelis do not seem to have learned the Lebanon lesson.  They 
still believe the language of force will bring them security, 
although the latest aggression against Lebanon showed that Israeli 
security is threatened not because of missiles, but because of the 
policies of the Tel Aviv rulers, who have dropped peace from their 
dictionary and calculations and rejected -- and continue to reject 
-- the dialogue that brings security to a region exhausted by wars 
and the policy of aggression and terrorism...." 
----------------- 
"Confused Dreams" 
----------------- 
Ali Qasim, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra, commented 
(8/19):  "Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is mistaken if he 
believes that his reference to an Arab-Israeli axis to confront 
extremism will help him create a rift in the Arab position or evade 
embarrassment before the world as a person who rejects peace and 
hinders attempts to revive the peace process.... 
"Peoples and countries of the region realize that no axis can serve 
their interests and that the conflict with an enemy that occupies 
Arab land remains bigger than any illusion.... 
"The basis of stability is ending occupation and returning usurped 
rights to their owners by re-launching the peace process on the 
basis of the exchange of land for peace.... Any other arrangement 
will be a jump into a vacuum that would only exacerbate the 
situation in the region...." 
--------------------------------------------- - 
"The Less Bad is Too Bad, too;  Has Constructive 
Chaos Reached the Security Council?" 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Former Information Minister Dr. Mahdi Dakhlallah commented in 
government-owned Tishreen, (10/19):  "We reject the argument that 
countries have only one option:  to engage in a confrontation with 
the powers of hegemony or to accept subservience to them and abandon 
their independence and rights.... There is international pressure to 
make these forces understand that the world is not an easy target 
waiting to be controlled, but a host of wills, values, principles, 
rights, and interests.... History will certainly record that a small 
number of weak countries and nations stood in the face of hegemony 
in one of the most difficult stages in the development of humanity. 
These countries made sacrifices and were starved, besieged, and 
fought, but they showed astonishing steadfastness in order to build 
new international relations based on principles, not on the 
philosophy of power...." 
Corbin