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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDM #0054/01 0161412
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 161412Z JAN 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2801
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6508
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 4288
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2895
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7463
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1511
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4853
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 1071
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 7195

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 000054 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR PA, NEA/ARN, INR/IC/CD, INR/R/MR:STHIBEAULT AND 
JMCCARTER, VOA NEWS CA, NEA/PPD:CBOURGEOIS, AZAIBACK, AND 
AFERNANDEZ, IIP/G/NEA-SA MDAVIDSON 
WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC 
CENTCOM FOR CCPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KMDR PREL KPAO OPRC SY
SUBJECT: Syria/Iraq, Syria's Role in the region, Rice's visit to the 
region, Palestinian Territories, Lebanon (1/16) 
 
 
¶1.  Summary:  Syrian papers on Jan. 16 continued to report on the 
visit to Damascus of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.  Headlines 
featured President Talabani's visit on Jan. 15 to the tomb of late 
President Hafez Asad in al-Qerdaha, where he laid a wreath of 
flowers on the tomb, read verses from the Qur'an and wrote a 
statement in the visitors' book in which he recalled the assistance 
offered by the late President to the Iraqi people to maintain their 
independence and sovereignty.  Papers also reported FM Mouallem's 
meeting with Iraqi FM al-Isawi on Jan. 15.  Mouallem reiterated 
Syria's commitment to Iraqi unity and territorial integrity, and to 
the withdrawal of foreign troops from it.  He also expressed Syria's 
readiness to help the Iraqi people achieve national reconciliation. 
 
All papers featured a statement by Mohammad Said Bkheitan, Assistant 
Regional Secretary of the Baath Party, to the annual conference of 
the Damascus Branch of the party on Jan. 15, confirming Syria's 
desire for a just and comprehensive peace in the region.  He 
stressed that plots aiming to impose hegemony and domination on the 
region and to isolate Syria have begun to collapse. 
 
Papers also featured the interview of British journalist and writer 
Patrick Seale with the UAE newspaper al-Itihad on Jan. 15, in which 
he maintained that peace cannot be realized in the Middle East 
without responding to Syria's just demands for restoration of the 
occupied Golan up to the June 4, 1967 border.  He underscored that 
any isolated Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations will not succeed 
without the participation of Syria and Lebanon, pointing out that 
the latest visit by the US Secretary of State to the region only 
reflects American disappointment and weakness.  He criticized US 
policy regarding the peace process in the Middle East, adding that 
"Washington chose to isolate itself from the peace process for the 
last six years." 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"Iraqi President Talabani visits tomb of late President Hafez Asad 
in al-Qerdaha and the Martyr Monument on Qasiyoun Mountain " 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"FM Mouallem confirms to Iraqi FM al-Isawi Syria's readiness to 
achieve an Iraqi reconciliation" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"Mohammad Said Bkheitan, Assistant Regional Secretary of the Baath 
Party, addresses the annual conference of Damascus Branch of the 
Baath Party:  Syria is loyal to its principles.  Projects of 
hegemony have failed" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"US Senator Bill Nelson in a press statement about his meeting with 
President Asad:  Syria is an important country, and we have a joint 
interest in Iraq's stability" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 1/16) 
 
"British journalist and author Patrick Seale:  Peace cannot be 
realized in the Middle East without responding to Syria's just 
demands" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"'A Republican revolution' against Bush, which the White House 
endeavors to contain" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"Zebari calls on Washington to release Iranian diplomats.  Two US 
soldiers killed, six injured in Baghdad.  Casey acknowledges 
difficulty of carrying out the Baghdad plan" Government-owned 
Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"Secretary of Defense Robert Gates:  We will remain in the Gulf" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 1/16) 
 
"The Washington Post:  Iraq is a new Vietnam" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 1/16) 
 
"Rice's visit coincides with expansion of settlement activity in the 
West Bank and assassination of Palestinian activists.  Rice and 
Olmert:  Agreement on foiling the international conference and 
supporting Abbas" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
"Lebanon:  Sit-ins continue.  The opposition prepares for the week 
of resolution" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 1/16) 
 
 ¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
----------------------- 
 
"Satanic Designations" 
 
----------------------- 
 
Izz-al-Din al-Darwish, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, 
commented (1/16):  "There is an important point in Bush's strategy 
in Iraq to which the media paid little attention, namely, the US 
president's deliberate attempt, through his talk about moderate 
governments and extremist governments and his assertion that the 
fate of moderates is linked to the inevitability of victory in Iraq, 
to drive a wedge in inter-Arab relations and entrench divisions 
among Arabs.... 
 
"Bush's categorization of Arab reality represents a plan for 
sedition, a public call for political and sectarian divergence, and 
persistence in the argument that 'those who are not with us are 
against us'.... 
 
"The victory that Bush talked about and depicted as a favor for 
those he called moderate Arabs is beyond reach, and almost 
impossible as long as the American objectives in the war on Iraq -- 
not in Iraq -- remain the same and as long as the American concept 
of victory is based on Bush's calculations. 
 
"It can be said, therefore, that the neoconservatives, who are up to 
their ears in the Iraqi mud -- as their military commanders stress 
-- and who dictated to Bush the elements of his new strategy, still 
harbor hatred and vengeful tendencies toward Arabs in general, not 
only toward the extremists among them, as they say. Arabs who 
believe they are spared from the neoconservatives' schemes and 
hatred are making a big mistake.... 
 
"Syria does know what it must do for its Iraqi, Lebanese, and 
Palestinian brothers.  It does not interfere in the domestic affairs 
of any of them, and it does not want to.  It also knows that there 
are Israeli factors behind these American accusations.  The aim is 
to weaken Arabs to a point where they will not be able to recover, 
through the creation of new hotbeds of tension in and around the 
region, and to push Arabs themselves to create the new Middle East 
after the American-Israeli machines of war and aggression failed to 
create it...." 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
"Within the Circle of Isolation" 
 
-------------------------------- 
 
Muhammad Khayr al-Jammali, an editorialist in government-owned 
Al-Thawra, wrote (1/16):  "The political battle is raging in the US 
between President Bush and his administration on one side, and 
Democrats and the majority of the American people on the other.... 
 
"President Bush, in his new strategy for Iraq, ignored the 
Democrats' view, which calls for a programmed withdrawal from Iraq 
and for dialogue with Syria and Iran.... 
 
"Through his stupid policy, President Bush has isolated himself.  If 
Democrats succeed in obtaining a Congressional resolution opposing 
the increase of US troops in Iraq, the isolation of the president 
will be complete.  He will find his hands tied, and even his use of 
the presidential veto will not be useful, because if he uses this 
veto he will find himself embroiled in a political fight much 
fiercer than the current debate over his erroneous policy and its 
serious consequences for the US, its reputation, and its interests 
in the region and the world." 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
"When Will America Shed its Israeli Skin?" 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
Ahmad Sawwan, a columnist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(1/16):  "Condoleezza Rice stated that she had no plan for a 
Palestinian-Israeli settlement and that the United States adheres to 
the Roadmap. 
 
"No progress has been made in the Middle East peace process because 
none of the plans offered for a solution touched the essence of the 
problem, namely, the occupation.... 
 
"Plans and efforts must focus on removing occupation, for a just, 
lasting, and comprehensive solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict to 
be found.  The road to this was clearly defined by the legitimate 
international sources:  The terms of reference of the Madrid 
conference, the exchange of land for peace, and the implementation 
of relevant UNSC resolutions, which all call for Israel's withdrawal 
to the 4 June 1967 border and for guaranteeing the Palestinian 
people's rights to repatriation, self-determination, and the 
establishment of an independent national state with Jerusalem as its 
capital.... 
 
"The US, like Israel, is evading these requirements although it 
knows that a solution can only be achieved within this 
framework...." 
 
Corbin