VZCZCXYZ0032
OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDM #0192/01 0591341
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 281341Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3033
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6604
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 4371
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 2983
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7538
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1597
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 4934
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 1147
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 7274

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 000192 
 
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/Egypt, Syria/Lebanon, Iraq, Palestinian Territories 
(2/28) 
 
 
¶1.  Summary: Syrian papers on Feb. 28 reported that President Asad 
received a phone call on Feb. 27 from President Mubarak about 
preparations for the Arab Summit scheduled for March 28 in Riyadh. 
 
On Iraq, papers reported that FM Mouallem received a telephone call 
on Feb. 27 from Turkish FM Abdullah Gul focusing on preparations for 
the meeting of Iraq's neighboring countries due to be held in 
Baghdad in March.  Papers cited a Washington Post report claiming 
that the Bush Administration has decided to sit side by side with 
Syria and Iran within the framework of the meeting. 
 
On the Lebanese issue, papers reported VP Shara's meeting on Feb. 27 
with Abd-al-Rahim Murad, Chairman of the Lebanese al-Ittihad Party. 
Talks focused on the tense situation in Lebanon.  Shara reiterated 
Syria's support for everything the Lebanese agree upon to achieve 
national accord and serve Lebanon's interests and Arab affiliation. 
In a statement to reporters after the meeting, Murad stressed the 
importance of the special fraternal relations between Syria and 
Lebanon and criticized attempts by some parties in Lebanon to harm 
and destabilize these relations to serve the American-Zionist plan. 
He called for a national unity government, for enactment of a new 
and fair electoral law, and for setting a new date for holding 
parliamentary elections, after which presidential elections can be 
held.  Murad welcomed all initiatives that seek to find solutions to 
the Lebanese crisis.  On the international tribunal, Murad said "the 
tribunal, in its current status, is political, not judicial."  He 
added:  "This is unacceptable.  The tribunal must not be used to 
cover American and Zionist intervention in this region." 
 
On the visit to Moscow by Khaled Mashal, Chairman of the Hamas 
Politburo, papers featured a press statement by Mishal expressing 
hope that a Palestinian national unity government will be formed, 
stressing that his visit to Russia aims at holding consultations to 
lift the economic siege against Palestinians.  The Hamas official 
held Israel responsible for the absence of peace in the Middle East 
because of its continued rejection of Palestinian rights and 
occupation of Arab territories.  He called on the EU and the UN to 
exert all efforts to make the Quartet committee reconsider its 
positions regarding the situation in the region. 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"President Asad receives a phone call from Egyptian President 
Mubarak on preparations for the upcoming Arab summit" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 2/28) 
 
"FM Mouallem reviews with Turkish FM Abdullah Gul preparations for 
the meeting of Iraq's neighboring countries due to be held in 
Baghdad in March.  Washington:  We hope to sit with Syria and Iran" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) 
 
"Vice-President Shara discusses the current Lebanese crisis with 
Chairman of the Lebanese al-Ittihad Party Abdul Rahim Murad.  Shara: 
 Syria supports all that the Lebanese agree upon to accomplish 
national accord and serve Lebanon's interests and Arab affiliation" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) 
 
"Lebanese national opposition refuses to turn Lebanon into an 
advance trench for US plots.  The opposition:  We persist in the 
sit-in.  New steps will be taken soon" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 
2/28) 
 
"Four occupation soldiers killed in Baghdad.  More than 18 Iraqi 
children are victimized by terrorist attacks in al-Ramadi.  US 
suspicions about the Baghdad security plan" (Government-owned 
Al-Ba'th, 2/28) 
 
"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov discusses the issue of a 
Palestinian national unity government with Khalid Mashaal, Chairman 
of the Politburo of Hamas Movement:  Our goal is a Palestinian state 
within the 1967 borders.  Moscow supports the Mecca Accord and 
confirms readiness to lift the siege on Palestinians" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 2/28) 
 
¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
-------------------------- 
 
"Will the Congress Act?" 
 
-------------------------- 
Muhammad Khayr al-Jammali, an editorialist in government-owned 
Al-Thawrah, wrote (2/28):  "There are current efforts by the 
Democratic majority in the US Congress to withdraw powers that 
Congress gave to President Bush before the Iraq invasion allowing 
him to declare war and secure funds for it.... 
 
"Democrats have now realized that the raging war in Iraq has become 
futile, as it has failed to achieve the objectives that were set for 
it and has begun to take the form of a strategic crisis for the 
United States and its policy in the region.... 
 
"We wonder if the Congress will decide to withdraw the war powers 
from a president obsessed with the idea of war, and the expansion of 
its scope in the Middle East, even if this leads to an international 
disaster that will primarily harm the United States and its 
international interests.... 
 
"The Congress has no option but to do this if its Democratic and 
Republican members really want to correct the course of American 
policy and thus serve the interests of the American people, 
strengthen world peace, and safeguard stability in the Middle East, 
which is the key to international stability, given the extreme 
geo-strategic importance of this region." 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
"Desperate Tours for Unsuccessful Aspirations" 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
Dr. Ibrahim Zu'ayr, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawrah, 
wrote (2/28):  "The ideas and views that US Secretary of State 
Condoleezza Rice carried during her recent tour of the region are 
out of line with the security and domestic stability to which the 
peoples of the region aspire. 
 
"The solutions that Americans offer are not compromises so much as 
they are attempts to serve American and Israeli interests only.... 
 
"Washington and its representatives in the American foreign policy 
establishment have not realized that their friends in the region are 
no longer able to digest this American policy, which is full of 
hypocrisy, lies, chronic enmity toward the good of the peoples of 
the region, and absolute bias toward Israel and its permanent policy 
of aggression.... 
 
"Rice tried to convince Palestinian and Iraqi leaders of the 
American ideas but did not try to discuss the essential, crucial, 
and decisive issues that would lead, if resolved, to peace in the 
Middle East.... 
 
"Rice's mission, therefore, is impossible to accomplish because she 
and the US president deal with the Middle East with the mentality of 
'those who are not with us are our enemies and those who are with us 
are our friends.'  This repressive mentality will not intimidate or 
frighten those who defend the freedom and independence of their 
countries and who fight to drive the invaders out of their 
territories.  The solution lies only in American withdrawal from 
Iraq and Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territories, and in 
leaving the peoples of the region to determine their future by 
themselves. Only in this way can peace, security, and stability have 
a new historic opportunity." 
 
----------------- 
 
"A Mistaken Message" 
 
----------------- 
 
 
Ali Qasim, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawrah, wrote 
(2/28):  "If the purpose of the Israeli incursion into Nabulus in 
the past two days was to tell Palestinians that a Palestinian 
national unity government not meeting Israeli conditions will be 
dangerous, then this Israeli message was counterproductive because 
such practices will make Palestinians realize the meaning of 
accepting those Israeli conditions and make them understand that the 
issue is not so much rejecting the position of this Palestinian 
faction or that as it is rejecting Palestinian rights altogether.... 
 
 
"Perhaps the Israelis and Americans did not realize that the use of 
the Quartet to pressure Palestinians into accepting things that 
conflict with their choices and legitimate rights was misdirected, 
especially after the recent developments that opened the door wide 
for Palestinians to form a national unity government enjoying 
comprehensive Arab and Islamic support as well as international 
support providing the objective conditions for breaking the siege on 
the Palestinian people." 
 
-------------------------- 
 
"When They Become Useless" 
 
-------------------------- 
 
Dr. Turki Saqr, an op-ed writer in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(2/28):  "US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in her latest tour 
of the region, found no exit for the failed US policy except through 
creating further tension in Lebanon, obstructing solutions to the 
country's existing crisis, fomenting sectarian and denominational 
sedition among the Lebanese, and pushing things toward the abyss of 
civil war through the use of cheap tools who sold themselves to 
Americans and became their agents for few dollars.... 
 
"The agents in Lebanon are torpedoing every plan to resolve the 
crisis so that Lebanon will remain an outpost for the main and 
forward American plan in the region. 
 
"Rice's remark that the Lebanese government is the spearhead of the 
American plan in the region entails recognition that the dispute in 
Lebanon is not a domestic dispute over the international tribunal, 
for example, so much as it is a continuation of the war that the 
Israelis launched on Lebanon in July. 
 
"The American objective is not the tribunal or the revelation of the 
truth about the Al-Hariri assassination, but the protection of the 
impotent US plan for the region. 
 
"But agents of the United States in Lebanon must be aware that 
Washington cares only about its interests and that it will easily 
abandon them, as it has abandoned former agents, as soon as they 
become useless...." 
 
Corbin