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P 111411Z JUL 07
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SIPDIS 
 
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E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KPAO AU
 
SUBJECT: AUSTRIAN MEDIA HIGHLIGHTS: July 11, 2007 
 
 
Second Day of Coalition Meeting 
 
¶1. Austria's coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the 
People's Party, are gathering in the Burgenland provincial capital 
of Eisenstadt for the second day of closed-door meetings on key 
policy issues. Following a first round of talks yesterday, the 
leaders of the SPOe and the OeVP pledged to try resolving their 
differences on policy, which have marked the first six months of the 
grand coalition government. They are also going to plan for the next 
parliamentary period. Austrian media comment that the results of the 
meeting so far have been "quite meager." 
Reporting like all Austrian media on the SPOe-OeVP government 
meeting currently underway in Burgenland, independent provincial 
daily Salzburger Nachrichten comments: "Grand coalition negligible 
success." After months of disputes over key issues, including the 
Eurofighter purchase for Austria's armed forces, the "coalition 
partners refrained from fighting at the closed-door meeting." 
However, this was "only because they gave the real hot topics a wide 
berth. Agreements were reached on marginal issues exclusively," the 
daily says.  Mass-circulation daily Kurier meanwhile says that 
Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer came across as "self-critical" in an 
interview with the daily: "The government only has itself to blame 
for its poor image," Gusenbauer told the newspaper, and emphasized 
that he wants the quarrels within the coalition to end. 
 
 
City and Federal Government Fail to Act on Cemetery 
 
¶2. Instead of taking the volunteers from the US Embassy as an 
example, who started cleaning a historic Jewish cemetery in Vienna's 
18th district to prevent the site from complete disrepair, the City 
of Vienna and the federal government have both chosen to remain 
silent on the issue, particularly on the question of who is to bear 
the costs of the cemetery's urgently necessary renovation. 
Reporting on recent efforts by US Embassy representatives to 
preserve the historic Jewish cemetery in Vienna's 18th district, 
mass-circulation tabloid Kronen Zeitung says that as both the 
federal and the Vienna city authorities are apparently washing their 
hands of the issue, more volunteers will likely be needed to 
guarantee the site's renovation. This is a "sad state of affairs" 
for one of Vienna's cultural monuments, the Kronen Zeitung 
criticizes. Austrian historian Tina Walzer is now looking for 
additional volunteers to help clean the cemetery from weeds and 
shrubs and to clear walking paths, the daily says. 
 
 
Deal Agreed On Brenner Tunnel 
 
¶3. The Austrian, Italian and German transport ministers signed a 
memorandum of understanding earlier this week on building a tunnel 
through the Brenner Pass. The massive infrastructure project is 
designed to ease the impact of transit traffic through the Austrian 
Alps. Last year 1.9 million trucks used the Brenner Pass. 
Reporting on the agreement between the Austrian, Italian and German 
transport ministers on building the Brenner Tunnel, semi-official 
daily Wiener Zeitung explains that the construction of the tunnel is 
expected to cost six billion Euros. The deal envisages that the 
costs be shared between Austria, Italy and the European Union. The 
long delayed project is designed to relieve road traffic through the 
Brenner Pass connecting Germany with northern Italy via the Austrian 
Alps. At 63 kilometers long, the Brenner Tunnel will be the longest 
in the world. The agreement signed on Tuesday is a breakthrough on 
the project which has been under discussion between Austria and 
Brussels for nearly a decade. 
 
 
Pakistan: Islamist Leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi Killed 
 
¶4. Pakistan's army says the operation against radical Islamists in 
Islamabad's Red Mosque is in its final stages. The mosque's militant 
cleric, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, and around 50 of his supporters have 
been killed since troops stormed the complex early yesterday. 
Fighting continued this morning, and about 50 women and children 
have been freed from inside the mosque. An Austrian foreign editor 
says that although the chances for the standoff at the mosque being 
resolved peacefully were slim to begin with, the latest developments 
will only strengthen Pakistan's radical forces. 
Independent provincial daily Salzburger Nachrichten analyzes the 
recent developments in Pakistan, and says that after the bloodbath 
at the Red Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf 
can no longer afford his policy of appeasement towards the 
fundamentalists. The crisis is affecting a head of state who can 
count on the support of the Western world, because he is a key ally 
in the fight against terrorism. For now, Musharraf still has the 
backing of the Pakistani army, but it remains to be seen how much 
longer they'll be willing to support him in his conflict with the 
country's radical Islamic forces. 
Meanwhile, in centrist daily Die Presse, foreign affairs writer 
Thomas Seifert comments that the violent conflict over the Red 
Mosque is "occurring in a country that is currently in a deep 
crisis." The greatest threat to President Musharraf is the "diverse 
and complex Islamic movement in the country. Before 9/11, these 
extremist elements were welcome accomplices in Pakistan's struggle 
with India over the province of Kashmir, but in the wake of the 
September 11 attacks in the US, such unholy alliances could no 
longer be sustained," Seifert says. 
 
 
 
 
Bush Calls for More Time on Iraq 
 
¶5. US President George Bush has rejected calls for the withdrawal of 
US troops from Iraq ahead of the publication of a status report on 
Iraq due this week. Instead, he urged Congress to give the recent 
surge in troop numbers more time to work. The Iraqi Foreign Minister 
has meanwhile warned that Iraq would disintegrate if troops were 
withdrawn too soon, and emphasized the danger of civil war or a 
wider regional conflict. According to an Austrian daily, rejection 
of President Bush's Iraq policy has reached a new all-time high in 
the US: A survey revealed that 62 percent of Americans believe the 
deployment of troops to Iraq was a mistake. 
Reporting on the United States' Iraq policy, liberal daily Der 
Standard suggests there are "signals of a potential retreat 
operation." The only one in the US "still talking about US success 
in Iraq" is Fred Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute, the 
daily says. Half a year after the presented proposal for the 
military "surge" to stabilize Iraq, virtually no-one talks about 
victory any longer. Instead, debates in the US are focusing on 
potential scenarios for a strategic retreat. General David Petraeus, 
too, has warned that US efforts in Iraq could yet take another ten 
years. In Washington, there is no one who wants to imagine US 
soldiers still stationed in Iraq in 2017, despite that fact that the 
White House has been dismissing alleged plans for a troop pullout, 
says the Standard, and adds that according to military experts, the 
American forces are no longer in a position to carry out the tasks 
the supporters of the troop surge have cut out for them. Kagan 
critic James Miller has meanwhile suggested that the US should focus 
on three key criteria regarding Iraq: The country must not become a 
long-term safe haven for al Qaeda; regional wars between Sunnis and 
Shiites, as well as a Shiite genocide of Sunnis must be prevented. 
According to Miller, this was in the United States' own interest. It 
would be unrealistic to believe more could still be accomplished. 
McCaw