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OO RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDM #0772/01 2110616
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 300616Z JUL 07
FM AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 3938
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 6988
RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT 4673
RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO 3334
RUEHRH/AMEMBASSY RIYADH 7807
RUEHTV/AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV 1904
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 5231
RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM 1438
RHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL//CCPA//
INFO RUEHNC/AMEMBASSY NICOSIA 7548

UNCLAS DAMASCUS 000772 
 
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: Lebanon, Peace Process, Palestinian Territories, Iraq, 
Syria/China (7/27-29) 
 
¶1.  Summary:  All Syrian papers on July 29 featured Hizbollah leader 
Sayed Hassan Nasrallah's speech on July 28 in mass rally in Bint 
Jbeil in south Lebanon commemorating the anniversary of the July 
2006 war with Israel saying that the Lebanese resistance has foiled 
US plans for a new Middle East and warning that his party will 
continue to possess a large rocket arsenal to strike Israel again if 
Lebanon comes under attack. "This war aimed to impose a new Middle 
East, fragmented into ethnic mini-states, serving the interests of 
the United States and Israel," Nasrallah said.   "There is no new 
Middle East; It is gone with the wind."  Nasrallah charged that the 
July-August war was the result of "a US decision" and the United 
States provided Israel with "political and material support." 
Nasrallah said both Washington and Israel were counting their losses 
since the conflict, adding that Hizbollah will never be at peace 
with Israel. 
 
Independent al-Watan on July 29 reported that Spanish Foreign 
Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos said that his country fully supports 
the Arab Peace Initiative, describing it as "a good base" for an 
international peace conference, which the US has suggested to be 
held next fall.  Moratinos is in a tour in the region and will visit 
Syria this week. 
 
Al-Watan July 29 also reported that a conference on the health needs 
of Iraqis in neighboring countries is convening today in Damascus, 
and will last for two days. Minister of health in Syria, Jordan, 
Iraq, and Egypt, in addition to representatives from the UNDP and 
the UNICEF, will attend the meeting. 
 
On Syrian-Chinese relations, government-owned Al-Thawran on July 27 
reported that Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad's meeting on 
July 26 with Lihua Chen, the Chinese Ambassador in Damascus, 
reiterating Syria's support for the One-China principle which enjoys 
vast acceptance and backing in the world. Miqdad renewed Syria's 
rejection of attempts aiming at targeting this principle including a 
referendum that the Taiwan administration wants to make in order to 
join the UN.  During the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral 
relations between both countries and means of enhancing them in all 
domains, as well as coordination and consultation between them in 
the UN. The Deputy Foreign Minister underlined Syria's commitment to 
resolution 2758 of 1971 adopted by the UN General Assembly which 
expressed the international community's recognition of one 
legitimate government in China. 
 
End of summary. 
 
¶2.  Selected Headlines: 
 
"Hizbollah SecGen Nasrallah:  We have foiled US plans for a new 
Middle East... Dreams of the governing team have begun to vanish" 
(Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 7/29) 
 
"President Lahoud warns against settling Palestinian refugees. 
Former PM Karami warns against prolonging the crisis. MP Aoun: The 
confrontation with the governing team started after the 
marginalization of the presidency.  Lebanese Ministers and MPs:  The 
governing team is gambling on the US-Israeli project" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 7/28) 
 
"French Foreign Minister Kouchner to the Lebanese:  Either dialogue 
or war" (Government-owned Al-Ba'th, 7/29) 
 
"Moratinos reiterates Spain's support for the Arab Peace Initiative; 
He is due in Damascus this week" (Independent al-Watan, 7/29) 
 
"A European diplomatic source: Fateh al-Islam is affiliated with 
Al-Qaeda; Syria is a target of its operations" (Independent 
al-Watan, 7/29) 
 
"Damascus hosts a conference on the health needs of Iraqi refugees" 
(Independent al-Watan, 7/29) 
 
"Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: No solution for any of the 
region's issues without Syria" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/28) 
 
"Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Miqdad confers with Embassy of 
 
China.  Talks focus on enhancement of consultations and bilateral 
cooperation" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 7/27) 
 
"Rice and Gates in the region to 'soothe' moderate 'Arabs'" 
(Independent al-Watan, 7/29) 
 
"The United States and Canada vote against a resolution by the UN 
Social and Economic Council that calls for reviving the peace 
process on the basis of resolutions 242, and 338" (Government-owned 
Tishreen, 7/28) 
 
"Moscow asserts that Hamas is a substantive party in talks. 
President Abbas heads to Moscow to get clarification about its 
position" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/29) 
 
"Olmert proposes an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank while 
keeping major settlements.  8% of Israelis support Olmert" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 7/28) 
 
"Israel commits a new massacre in Gaza" (Government-owned Al-Thawra, 
7/27) 
 
"61 Iraqis killed, 94 wounded in an explosion of al-Qarada. A 
Congressional committee calls for a timetable to withdraw US troops 
from Iraq" (Government-owned Tishreen, 7/29) 
 
"No political roadmap in Iraq. Nine US soldiers killed in Iraq 
within two days. An emergency US plan to withdraw US troops" 
(Government-owned Tishreen, 7/28) 
 
¶3.  Editorial Block Quotes: 
 
------------------------------------- 
 
"Farcical Play and Failed Production" 
 
------------------------------------- 
 
Isam Dari, an editorialist in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(7/28):  "US President George Bush's administration is trying to 
accomplish in a year and six months what it failed to accomplish in 
five years and six months.  Will it succeed? 
 
"This administration is trying to put on the discussio0n table and 
in the circle of attention what it has ignored since its 
controversial arrival in the White House.  We are talking about the 
peace process, specifically, a settlement or a deal to delude the 
public opinion into thinking that a victory was achieved on the 
peace front, since defeats are what this administration has on the 
war front.... 
 
"The search for some victory prompted Bush and his senior 
administration officials to move in the Middle East arena in an 
attempt to conclude a deal between Israel and the Palestinian 
Authority; a deal that might be deposited in his empty account in 
the political bank. 
 
"We have no doubt that the American policymakers are smart.  But 
this smartness is incomplete because it assumes that the others are 
naove and can be deceived, which is not the case.  Here lies the 
mistake in Washington's policies. 
 
"This smartness turned Tony Blair into the peace envoy of the 
Quartet, which is exclusively owned by the US Administration, 
because Blair has been tested and has proved to be the best to 
implement the American orders in full.... 
 
"But Blair alone is not enough to score the desired accomplishment 
that would help Bush go down in history as a peacemaker, not as a 
man of war, terror, and destruction.... 
 
"Here is Miss Rice packing in a hurry, getting ready to come to us 
to give momentum to the American and international efforts to 
establish a temporary Palestinian mini-state without independence 
and sovereignty and only on a part of the West Bank. What a 
difficult puzzle! 
 
 
"Blair and Rice are part of the scene and part of the moves. What is 
required is an American-European-Arab mobilization to produce the 
worst farcical play in the region's history. 
 
"How can a team managed by masters of Zionists or Zionized people 
make a just peace without it being biased toward the Zionist plan 
and Israel? 
 
"How can this team turn the losers and the defeated into victorious 
peace heroes? 
 
"For an administration that has been skilled at lies and deception 
over six and a half years, this is very easy. The old weapon it used 
to invade and occupy Iraq and ignite fires in it can be used again. 
This is the weapon of lies.... 
 
"Today, people who should be referred to the war crimes court come 
to us to tell us about an Arab-international conference 'meeting' in 
the United States in September to normalize Arab relations with 
Israel, even before the signing of a worthless deal that gives a 
part of a Palestinian mini-state to part of the Palestinians.... 
 
"Bush might achieve some false victory, but it will remain false. 
He will not be able to mislead the world once again because he is 
not a man of peace and because he is the advocate of a colonialist 
planbased on the settlements. He and peace are diametrically 
opposed. The new play will miserably fail because its production is 
a failure and because it is a new lie by an administration that have 
taken up lies and charlatanism as a profession." 
 
---------------------------- 
 
"How they abort Victories!" 
 
---------------------------- 
 
Hanan Hamad, a commentator in government-owned Tishreen, wrote 
(7/28):  "The Bush administration, which is unable to come out of 
the Iraqi quagmire and which lost many of its cards in Lebanon, is 
not really willing to achieve a genuine settlement between the 
Palestinians and Israelis.... 
 
"This administration, through its growing talk about peace and the 
sending of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to the region, is 
trying to score some achievement for President Bush, one that 
improves Olmert's image and strengthens the positions of those whom 
the administration calls 'Arab moderates', without offering 
Palestinians an effective and complete solution guaranteeing their 
inalienable rights as acknowledged by the international resolutions 
and the historical facts of the conflict.... The solution the United 
States is looking for is one that completely serves Israel's 
interests.... 
 
"It is painful that Arabs of 'moderation' are putting the eggs of 
the victories of the resistance in Lebanon, Palestine, and Iraq in 
the basket of the American-Israeli plan that seeks to thwart these 
victories." 
 
-------------------- 
 
"A Danger Signal" 
 
-------------------- 
 
Ahmad Hamadah, an editorialist in government-owned Al-Thawra, wrote 
(7/27):  "The US Administration secretly pledged to Israeli Prime 
Minister Ehud Olmert to increase US aid to the Israeli military 
budget to $3 billion annually.... 
 
"Contrary to their claims that they seek to achieve peace, security, 
and stability in the region, the United States and Israel are 
planning war strategies for years to come.... 
 
"What peace is Israel calling for amid such policies that pave the 
way for further wars, destruction, and weapon stockpiles?  And what 
 
international conference is Bush calling for to launch the 
Arab-Israeli negotiations in the fall if he is planning to almost 
double the military assistance to Tel Aviv over the coming years...? 
 
 
"These are the strategies of war and aggression that the world has 
known well.  It is obviously difficult for a racist usurper entity 
and a blind US Administration that sees solutions only through wars 
and aggression, to abandon these strategies...." 
 
---------------- 
 
"Policy of Lies" 
 
---------------- 
 
Mundhir Khalil Id, a commentator in government-owned Al-Thawra, 
wrote (7/27): "Another lie by the Bush warning is that an American 
withdrawal from Iraq would enable Al-Qa'ida and Islamic extremists 
to control the Middle East, try to obtain nuclear weapons, and plan 
and finance new attacks on the United States.... 
 
"The world now knows the truth about Bush and the threat he poses to 
the world security and peace through his reckless policy.  During 
Bush's reign, the world has seen nothing but death, destruction, 
blood, and chaos.  It is high time Bush realized that lies do not 
build the glory of countries or individuals and that he ought to 
acknowledge defeat...." 
 
Corbin