US embassy cable - 03AMMAN7276

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 007276 
 
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, MIDDLE EAST 
 
 
                        Summary 
 
-- A lead story in all papers today, November 6, 
focuses on developments in Iraq, with reports of three 
explosions that rocked the U.S. military command's 
headquarters in Mosul yesterday and that the U.S. 
forces arrested two Iraqi generals suspected of 
organizing part of the resistance in the Sunni 
triangle in Iraq. All papers report Kurdish leader 
Jalal Talbani's statements criticizing Syria's "wrong" 
policy towards Iraq. Al-Dustour reports that the 
United States is getting ready to deploy thousands of 
its reserve troops in Iraq. Papers also report that 
the dispute continues between Palestinian President 
Yasser Arafat and Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad 
Qurei over who to appoint as Palestinian interior 
minister. 
 
On the domestic front, all papers report that Foreign 
Minister Muasher was the guest in a Jordan Television 
program entitled "Issues and Events," during which he 
said that Jordan's foreign policy does not change with 
the change in government. Muasher stressed that the 
establishment of an independent Palestinian state is a 
Jordanian interest and that Jordan is employing its 
international relations to secure a just and 
comprehensive solution in the region. 
 
In another development, all papers quote Secretary 
General of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral 
Resources Eng. Khaldoun Qteishat as saying that the 
first shipment of Iraqi oil is expected to arrive by 
sea on November 14. 
 
             Editorial Commentary on Iraq 
 
-- "The Bombardment of "Mr." Bremer's Headquarters!" 
 
Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back page of 
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm 
(11/06): "The most important thing that can be deduced 
from the bombardment of "Mr." Bremer's headquarters is 
not about the number of missiles that succeeded in 
reaching him - just like what happened to Wolfowitz at 
Al-Rashid Hotel - but is about the ability of the 
resistance to continue such operations from any 
location in Iraq it chooses. In line with all 
resistance movements in history, this confirms that 
the (Iraqi) resistance has territories it can easily 
move about in and that it is able to hit and 
disappear. This is something that cannot happen 
without a popular umbrella, which can be clearly 
monitored from scenes of popular (Sunni and Shiite) 
demonstrations that express anger against the 
occupation and from the people's spontaneous 
jubilations after each operation against Americans." 
 
Noting that "Mr." Bremer is only a Mr. in the minds of 
those who came behind the occupation's tanks and the 
war-inflicted destruction, Udwan concludes: "This is a 
surname used by America's parties to return the favor 
for the occupying Mr.  Favors done by the Americans 
speak for themselves through the massacres that are 
being committed against the Iraqis, the last of which 
was the murder of five citizens and the burning of 
their bodies after finishing their Ramadan prayers in 
Dalou'iyah. In the minds of the Iraqis, the surname 
"Mr." will remain confined to the heritage and 
surnames they have inherited from their Islam. Or it 
will be a surname they will save for the Iraqi 
individual who can newly rule Iraq - an Iraq that is 
free of the occupation and of hegemony and of attempts 
to change its Muslim Arab skin, mind, and heart." 
 
        Editorial Commentary on the Middle East 
 
-- "The Europeans Support Peace and Condemn Israeli 
Terrorism" 
 
Commenting on the European public opinion poll that 
awarded Israel the title of "greatest danger to world 
peace," columnist Mahmoud Rimawi writes on the op-ed 
page of semi-official, influential Arabic daily Al-Rai 
(11/06): "One surprisingly notices that the European 
Union deliberately chose to take its time and was 
reluctant before it released the results of the poll. 
The requirements of Western democratic and 
constitutional life impose on the countries of this 
union to be guided by those results and to formulate 
their policies base on them. This is given that as a 
whole, European stands are good and objective but lack 
their implementation and translation into tangible 
steps and measures." 
 
Rimawi concludes: "All Arab parties, individually or 
as a whole, should "empower" themselves from the 
results of this poll so as to organize a political and 
diplomatic attack against the criminal occupying 
Israeli force, which does not stop threatening to 
drown the region in blood in addition to its exercise 
of the policy of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians 
- the sons of the occupied territories." GNEHM