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RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHRL #1242/01 2781329
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 051329Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5382
INFO RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUEHBS/AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 1595
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0298
RUEHFR/AMEMBASSY PARIS 0819
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 2336
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 1345
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 0528
RHMFIUU/HQ USAFE RAMSTEIN AB GE
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE//J5 DIRECTORATE (MC)//
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE
RUKAAKC/UDITDUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE

UNCLAS BERLIN 001242 
 
STATE FOR INR/R/MR, EUR/PAPD, EUR/PPA, EUR/CE, INR/EUC, INR/P, 
SECDEF FOR USDP/ISA/DSAA, DIA FOR DC-4A 
 
VIENNA FOR CSBM, CSCE, PAA 
 
"PERISHABLE INFORMATION -- DO NOT SERVICE" 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.0. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR KPAO IR US XF EU
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: IRAN, OLYMPICS, NIDEAST, EU; Berlin 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
¶2.   (Iran)   Nuclear Conflict 
¶3.   (Olympics)   Impact on Obama Administration 
¶4.   (Mideast)   Goldstone Report 
¶5.   (Ireland)   Aftermath of Irish Vote On Lisbon Treaty 
 
 
 
¶1.   Lead Stories Summary 
 
Print media lead with the coalition talks between the CDU/CSU and 
the 
FDP (FAZ), Iran's ability to build the bomb (Sueddeutsche), the 
conflict on who should become the new finance minister (Die Welt), 
and 
an interview with Bundesbank President Axel Weber (Handelsblatt). 
Editorials focused on Irish approval to the Lisbon Treaty, coalition 
 
talks and Iran's ability to build an atomic weapon.  ZDF-TV's early 
 
evening newscast heute and ARD-TV's early evening newscast 
Tagesschau 
opened with reports on the upcoming coalition talks. 
 
¶2.   (Iran)   Nuclear Conflict 
 
Sddeutsche (10/05) led under the headline "Iran can build a nuclear 
 
weapon," and notes in its intro that, "according to an internal 
document of the IAEA, Iran has the necessary knowledge to build a 
nuclear weapon.  This is the result of an analysis of documents from 
 
various secret services."  The paper editorialized: "It is too early 
 
to speak of a breakthrough because it remains unclear whether Tehran 
 
will do what its negotiators promised.  However, after years of 
standstill, the Geneva talks with Iran presented a prospect for an 
exit from the nuclear dispute....  Iran insists on the right to 
enrich 
uranium.  The West could allow this to the Iranians - but only if 
Iran 
stores this material in a third country and processes it there into 
 
fuel rods.   Another condition is that Iran allows comprehensive 
inspections as envisaged by the NPT." 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine (10/05) editorialized on the front-page: "The 
 
Islamic Republic of Iran does not seem to be interested in being 
further internationally isolated.  This is how we have to interpret 
 
the recent U-turn in Tehran, which happened after the recently 
successful talks in Geneva on the Iranian nuclear program.... 
Tehran 
has apparently realized that it would lose supporters who were in 
the 
past less inclined to impose sanctions than Washington if it 
continues 
its recent policy....  If the development continues to go in this 
direction, ElBaradei was right to stick to the conviction that the 
conflict can be resolved diplomatically...  In the U.S., however, 
the 
mistrust is bigger than in Europe.  For good reason--since Iran is 
also working on developing long-range missiles." 
 
Die Welt (10/05) opined: "Is the Tehran elite tired of its 
international isolation after years of pursuing obstructive and 
confrontational policies?  It is more likely that the mullah regime 
 
cannot buy fuel for its plant on the world market because of 
existing 
sanctions.  The offer to enrich uranium under international 
oversight 
came in handy.  There is no reason to be hopeful." 
 
¶3.   (Olympics)   Impact on Obama Administration 
 
Since Saturday Germany celebrated the Day of German Unity, there 
were 
no newspapers.  However, a few papers carried online reports on the 
 
IOC's decision to award Rio with the Olympic Games 2016.  FAZ online 
 
carried the headline "Slap for Obama" and characterized losing the 
Olympics to Rio as an "embarrassing defeat."  Sueddeutsche online: 
"Crash for Obama," Welt online: "Chicago and Obama in shock," 
Tagesspiegel: "Barack out of luck." Spiegel online is reporting how 
 
Republicans in the U.S. have attempted to exploit the outcome for 
political advantage. 
 
Welt am Sonntag (10/04) carried a news report headlined: "Olympic 
Affront Against Obama" and wrote: "The IOC awarded Rio with the 
summer 
games in 2016 and affronts the U.S. president....  On his return 
flight 
from Copenhagen, President Obama had to swallow the most bitter pill 
 
of his presidency.  After the first run-off elections IOC head 
Jacques 
Rogge had to announce the Chicago was eliminated with only 18 votes 
of 
the available 94 votes.  Obama owes his defeat to the miserable 
international standing of his most important sports functionaries. 
 
For years, the National U.S. Olympic Committee has fallen by the 
wayside.  It does not even have an IOC board member.  Too late and 
in 
a too recalcitrant way, the U.S. Olympic Committee approved an 
amendment to the restrictive contract from those times when almost 
all 
IOC sponsors came from the United States.  Now the Americans were 
punished for the fact that only in 2020 a new distribution formula 
[for the funds the IOC earns] will be applied." 
 
In an editorial under the headline: "Obama's First Rejection," Welt 
am 
Sonntag noted: "This is painful defeat for Barack Obama.  It will 
have 
a lasting effect that the charismatic U.S. president was unable to 
win 
with his greatest trump card: the suggestion the he could give the 
United States a totally new face abroad.  For a politician who 
attaches great significance to symbols, such symbolic failures could 
 
have devastating consequences.  At home he has almost reached the 
normal status of a controversial politician and in foreign policy he 
 
may not yet have achieved clear successes, but...with his 
international 
charm-offensives, which have always been accompanied with glorious 
pictures, the expectations of his fellow Americans that their 
country 
will now be received with open arms everywhere in the world has 
increased tremendously.  If the United States is now being rejected 
 
during such a comparably minor occasion, the insult to national 
pride 
is now all the greater." 
 
Under the headline: "United States, We Don't Like You!," FAZ 
Sonntagszeitung (10/04) reported: "President Obama flew to 
Copenhagen 
for five hours, delivered a speech and shook numerous hands, only to 
 
be snubbed a few hours later by an accumulation of former sports 
professionals, aristocrats, VIPs and sport functionaries.  The 
sobering conclusion of the President's brief visit: with all his 
charisma, the President only managed to get a picture in the photo 
album of the IOC members.  One of the messages from the IOC members 
 
following the election result is: U.S., we do not like you....  In 
addition, there is a sound reason for all IOC functionaries, to be 
critical towards the National U.S. Olympic Committee.  Due to an 
old, 
unlimited contract, the USOC receives the same share in Olympic 
income 
as all other 204 IOC members together.  Only with great difficulty, 
 
the IOC succeeded in wrestling the concessions from the USOC to take 
 
over a higher share in Olympic costs and to approve new negotiations 
 
about this contract in 2013.  But these concessions were obviously 
too 
small." 
 
¶4.   (Mideast)   Goldstone Report 
 
"Setback for the Peace Process," is the headline in die tageszeitung 
 
(10/05), which editorialized: "Under pressure from the United 
States, 
the UN Human Rights Council has postponed a decision on accepting 
the 
report of the Goldstone Commission on the crimes committed during 
the 
most recent Gaza War.  This is a bitter setback for efforts to 
finally 
end the impunity for human rights violations and violations of 
international law in the Middle East.  The reort of the UN fact- 
finding commission would offer the best possible basis for such 
efforts.  The allegation of the Obama administration that the 
acceptance of the report would jeopardize the peace process between 
 
Israelis and Palestinians is simply wrong.  It is not the 
documentation and prosecution of serious human rights violations 
that 
jeopardize peace, but the ongoing impunity and the lack of justice 
are 
escalating the conflict and preventing a peaceful solution." 
 
¶5.   (Ireland)   Aftermath of Irish Vote On Lisbon Treaty 
 
Deutschlandfunk 10/03) commented: "The nail-baiting over the basis 
of 
the European Union is not over yet...  The Lisbon Treaty now depends 
on 
the signature of only one person, the Czech president.  This is not 
a 
comforting prospect.  Klaus likes playing the role of single man who 
 
fights against the rest of the world.  The Euro-skeptic loves it 
when 
everybody focuses on him.  The situation is therefore dangerous for 
the European Union.  Klaus's rejection of the Czech ratification 
document has nothing to do with democracy.  This is the one-man show 
 
of an anti-European....   As a result, the EU faces a dilemma even 
though the Irish said yes....  Only the Czechs and Czech politicians 
can 
bring their president to his senses....  The EU remains the 
community of 
27 countries in which every single one of them can apply on the 
emergency brakes.  This is sad, maybe even tragic.  However, the 
wrangling over the Lisbon Treaty shows that many citizens cannot 
cope 
with a more deeply integrated Europe." 
 
Frankfurter Allgemeine (10/04) carried an editorial on its front 
page: 
""The remarkable clarity of the Irish "yes" indicates the depth of 
Irish angst.  Until the international financial crisis broke out, 
leading to the collapse of the Irish property market, the Irish 
believed that Europe, which boosted its economic growth, was good 
enough as it was....  With the approval of the Lisbon Treaty by the 
 
Irish, the British conservatives are now running into 
difficulties... 
The Irish yes makes it likely that the treaty will come into force 
by 
the time Cameron's Tories have won the elections next spring... 
Also 
the British people are unsure and reconsider the old issue of 
replacing the pound by the euro.  The Irish yes could give this a 
boost." 
 
Sddeutsche Zeitung (10/05) editorialized: "The Irish "yes" is the 
last stone in the new foundation of the European reform.  It 
prevents 
Europe from collapsing and plunging into political insignificance. 
 
And it offers Europe the opportunity to influence international 
policies....  The EU has proven to the world that it can reform 
itself. 
It must now show determination to take action.  The first 
opportunity 
is the nomination of the first EU Council president and the upgraded 
 
representative for foreign and security policies." 
 
Die Welt (10/05) remarked in an editorial: "The Irish yes is an 
improvement and increases the pressure on the Czechs and the Poles. 
 
Warsaw, which feels neglected by its American patron, will think 
twice 
whether it wants to be left alone in Europe.  The same is true for 
the 
Czechs, whose president, Klaus, embodies their resistance.  His 
concerns are legitimate, but it would also be legitimate by the 
larger 
EU countries to make clear to Prague what it means if one small 
country blocks the process.  The Czech Republic cannot be interested 
 
in a two-speed Europe." 
 
Berliner Zeitung (10/05) rejected this view, saying in an analytical 
 
piece: "The 26 EU countries must not exert pressure on Klaus because 
 
this poses the risk that the stubborn EU skeptic could become more 
popular at home.  However, the Czechs themselves could put pressure 
on 
their president." 
 
FT Deutschland (10/05) editorialized: "Klaus pretends to defend 
national sovereignty, but he actually pushes aside the will of the 
people by dubiously bending the rules.   He remained popular for a 
simple reason: the Czechs, traumatized by occupation, like it when 
their president provokes Brussels.  Europeans would be well-advised 
if 
they calmly watch the ratification process in the Czech Republic and 
 
do not express threats towards Prague.  This would not just further 
 
stir up the president who is obsessed with his image, it would also 
 
strengthen the feeling among the people that the EU is a patronizing 
 
and oppressing apparatus." 
  MURPHY