VZCZCXRO9037
OO RUEHDE RUEHDIR
DE RUEHAD #4356/01 3311300
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 271300Z NOV 06
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7750
RUENAAA/SECNAV WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC IMMEDIATE
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/WHITE HOUSE NSC WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 1129
RHRMDAB/COMUSNAVCENT
RHWSMRC/MCF01 SACCS USCINCCENT MACDILL AFB FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 004356 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP; NEA/PPD; NEA/RA; INR/R/MR; PA; INR/NESA; INR/B; 
RRU-NEA 
IIP/G/NEA-SA 
WHITE HOUSE FOR PRESS OFFICE; NSC 
SECDEF FOR OASD/PA 
USCINCCENT FOR POLAD 
LONDON FOR MCKUNE 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OIIP KMDR TC
SUBJECT:  MEDIA REACTION: IRAQ/IRAN AND UAE 
 
¶1. Summary:    A UAE female columnist in "Al-Bayan" confirms that it 
is time for the Bush administration to hear from Arabs that the 
chaos which is part of Bush's policies is stupid and foolish, 
turning the region into bloody fields.  "Al-Khaleej" ran a 
front-page editorial denouncing the Iranian government for not 
dealing directly with the Gulf countries and that such Iranian 
statements do not serve the future.  A UAE female columnist in 
"Al-Bayan" is critical U.S. policies in the region.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. A UAE female columnist, Aisha Sultan, wrote in an 11/26 op-ed in 
Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 85,000): 
 
"Today in Iraq, there is more than one strife or dissension.  Today, 
in Iraq, there is more than one beneficiary; there are militias and 
legalized death squads.  It is not just an issue of security chaos 
as some like to describe nor the creative chaos the United States 
wants to have.  The issue is bigger than that.  It is a huge plot 
fore-planned in the private and public corridors of study centers 
affiliated with the Pentagon, the White House and Zionist groups.  A 
UAE female student was right to stand up in one of the forums 
recently held in Abu Dhabi to direct these harsh words against 
former American President George Bush Sr.  She correctly described 
the policies generated by his son as anti-Arab policies and stated 
that the Arabs do not like Bush and his policies.  On the other 
hand, Senior Bush was very ignorant of the truth when he told her 
that he was confident in his son's political options and that his 
policies were correct.  Today, all of us in the Arab world need to 
raise this same voice in the face of the United States.  We must say 
that Bush's policies are not correct and a major calamity for which 
we are all paying the price for whether we liked it or not.  The 
time has come for the United States to hear that and submit to it... 
    American policies have transformed the region into fields of 
fire gated with blood and body parts.  This is a horrifying reality. 
 We do not know why the United States insists on dragging us into it 
as if we were some creature that it wanted to save itself from. It 
is like what Hitler had planned when he wanted to get rid of the 
Jews!  It is time for the Americans to hear us loud and clear that 
"Your policies do not appeal to us and do not secure either your or 
our interests!" 
 
 
¶3.  Under the headline "Iran's ignored dialog", Sharjah-based 
Pan-Arab daily "Al-Khaleej" (circulation 90,000) wrote an unsigned 
front-page 11/27 editorial: 
 
"The Arabs of the Gulf have a problem with Iran's foreign policy 
which tries to establish "dialog" with everyone in the world but 
does not start a dialog or build trust with its neighboring Arabs in 
the Gulf.  Tehran negotiates with the east and west, takes leading 
roles in the dialog between civilizations and religions, deals with 
the Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq, and expands its influence in 
more than one place in a tense Arab environment, yet it (Tehran) 
deals with the Arabs of the Gulf in a cold diplomacy...  Tehran 
forgets that the Gulf is its civilization and economic reservoir. 
It deliberately tries to weaken trust and ignores the advice of the 
Arabs of the Gulf in general and the UAE in particular on their 
nuclear ambitions and Iran's needs to build trust, collective 
security, and mutual cooperation.  Three and a half decades have 
passed and the three UAE islands are still occupied.  The UAE 
continues to call Iran for serious dialog.  Yet, the Iranian clock 
seems to be not working when it comes to [issues related to] the 
Arabs of the Gulf.  It is unfortunate that a semi official Iranian 
discourse comes out of Iran angry and extremely superior in nature. 
It does not try to open doors for dialog but rather increases the 
ambiguous scene in the Gulf.  The most recent of this discourse is 
the statement made by Iran's Foreign Affairs' spokesperson about 
anti-Iran activities in the UAE.  Isn't this part of the media 
nonsense?  Such statements increase the crisis in the region. These 
statements cannot work to cover for Iran's running away from 
answering difficult questions in Iraq and else where...  Making the 
situation tense by these statements does not help the present nor 
does it build a future of mutual security and cooperation.  Dialog 
with the Gulf states (which Iran does not do) is the only safe 
way." 
 
¶4. A UAE female Professor, Dr. Muna Al-Bahar, wrote an 11/27 op-ed 
in Dubai-based Arabic daily "Al-Bayan," (circulation 85,000) wrote: 
 
 
ABU DHABI 00004356  002 OF 002 
 
 
"While I was reading the speech of Bush the father reviewed by most 
local newspapers, my expectations were not high.  However, his words 
made me reach to utmost certainty that Bush does not greatly differ 
in the vision and way of thinking from his father.  As the saying 
goes: Like father, like son.  Because while the United States of 
America, the primary engine of extremism and terrorism in the world, 
practices its unfair foreign policies, Father Bush on the other hand 
speaks of peace and says in a speech he delivered at the conference 
that they as leaders of the United States will not allow the voices 
of deviant extremism to stand in the way of achieving the goals and 
aspirations of the peace which they are aiming for.  It is as if 
Bush is far away from what is happening around him in the world, or 
as if he does not want to recognize what the foreign policy is 
reaping...  He said "My son is honest and works hard for world 
peace."  Who in the world would believe such illogical statements? 
Even the most ignorant people among us who are not involved in the 
political life do not buy that.  How is Iraq today after the 
invasion and occupation in a better situation?  Iraq today, by all 
standards, is a devastated country facing a huge catastrophe whose 
exit is not easy...  Where is the free life they were promised? 
Where are the basic services which were enjoyed by the Iraqis prior 
the invasion?  Where are the employment opportunities and the decent 
lives which were before at least somewhat available to a regular 
Iraqi?  Where is the democracy promised to the Iraqis?  Nearly 65% 
of them prefer the current and rapid withdrawal of the foreign 
troops, and more than 70% of American soldiers believe they should 
leave Iraq within a year, and still you hear the American President, 
in his last press conference, say: "We certainly are achieving 
victory in Iraq" and that the Iraqi people have more freedom and are 
living a prosperous life.  We should ask ourselves: "What is the 
American president seeing or knowing, of which Iraqi people or the 
world following the events of Iraq cannot see?  There is no answer 
to this question.  As a matter of fact, the president sees only the 
profits made by American oil companies through the exploitation of 
the oil resources of Iraq.  This by law has never happened anywhere; 
not in the oil-rich Arab countries or even other oil-rich countries, 
since there is no oil-rich state that would give full authority for 
private foreign companies over its most important resource while 
waiving the interests of its people...  Accordingly, if this is what 
Bush is thinking when he speaks of unprecedented victory then 
obviously he already had achieved it and perhaps this explains why 
he is seduced to repeat this experiment in Iran which owns the third 
largest oil reserves in the world." 
 
QUINN 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
MR 27 Nov 2006           UNCLASSIFIED