US embassy cable - 03AMMAN7187

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 007187 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR, 
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN 
USAID/ANE/MEA 
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH 
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
 
TAGS: KMDR JO 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ, THE DAMASCUS MEETING 
COMMUNIQUE 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- A lead story in all papers today, November 4, 
focuses on the situation in Iraq, reporting the 
assassination of Iraqi collaborators with the 
occupation - including the head of court in Najaf and 
the head of Al-Karkh suburb in Baghdad - and the 
bombardment of Bremer's headquarters as well as an 
attack on Mosul airport. Headlines highlight President 
Bush's statement within a speech he delivered in 
Birmingham, Alabama, that the United States "will not 
run from Iraq."  According to Al-Rai, the Washington 
Post quoted U.S. officials as saying that former Iraqi 
Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told U.S. 
investigators that Saddam Hussein was under the belief 
that the U.S. attack on Iraq was merely a "trick" and 
that Saddam was convinced of the possibility of 
avoiding a war based on assurances from French and 
Russian mediators. 
 
On the domestic front, Prime Minister Faisal Al-Fayez 
continued meetings with members of Parliament to 
discuss the Government's program during the next 
stage. While meeting with members of the National 
Parliamentary Action Front bloc yesterday, Al-Fayez 
said that the foundation of a modern and democratic 
electoral law requires examination and dialogue. 
 
     Editorial Commentary on the Damascus Meeting 
 
-- "The Bankruptcy of the Occupation" 
 
Daily columnist Jamil Nimri writes on the back-page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(11/04): "The U.S. policy in Iraq has reached the 
verge of bankruptcy as it constitutes a series of 
assumptions that are against reality and lies that are 
exposed by facts ... Since the beginning, nothing in 
Iraq went according to expectations. This is because 
everything was built on lies for the sake of some 
covert ideas by the U.S. right wing that are 
characterized by extremism and are based on deceiving 
public opinion. Those ideas are serious due to their 
superficiality and simplicity - something which the 
administration is too stubborn to admit while the 
whole world is astonished as it watches the super 
power's entanglement in those ideas. 
 
Noting that the peak of simplicity lies in the fact 
that no attention was given to "the Day After" and 
that it was simply believed that Iraq could be ruled 
for a couple of years by a "a military ruler," Nimri 
concludes: "The peak of the tragedy lies in the fact 
that some news from Iraq cannot be differentiated from 
news from Palestine. For example, punishing the people 
for not cooperating in shoveling palm trees and other 
fruit trees from the territories where the clashes are 
taking place. If the extent of resistance to the 
occupation is what we see nowadays, what would the 
resistance be like after treating the inhabitants in 
such a manner? And what is the meaning of the 
continuation of this occupation, which is inevitably 
destined to disappear?!" 
 
-- "Ministers of the Six Neighboring Countries" 
 
Commenting on the final communique of the Damascus 
meeting, daily columnist Uraib Rintawi writes on the 
op-ed page of center left, influential Arabic daily Al- 
Dustour (11/04): "No one expected some neighboring 
countries (with Iraq) to admit responsibility for 
accusations leveled by the Americans and the Iraqis. 
Claiming innocence of those accusations was totally 
expected albeit not convincing at all. News keep 
coming in about confessions from defendants, some 
Salafi fundamentalist forces are strongly active 
within the Sunni triangle with support from their 
authorities in the vicinity and abroad and the 
experience in South Lebanon and Hizbullah's resistance 
is perceived by many parties as a model that can be 
emulated in Iraq." 
 
Rintawi concludes: "With the exception of two small 
countries - Kuwait and Jordan - each country that 
neighbors Iraq has agendas and considerations that 
sometimes meet and often clash. This is what made it 
possible for Turkey to exceptionally side with Iran 
and Syria and hence, led to the issuance of a loose 
communique written in large font, about a meeting that 
stole the lime light for a period of 48 hours only." 
GNEHM