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Viewing cable 06PARIS5185, MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Israel-Hezbollah Conflict - Iran's

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Reference ID Created Released Classification Origin
06PARIS5185 2006-08-01 10:53 2011-08-24 00:00 UNCLASSIFIED Embassy Paris
null
Lucia A Keegan  08/02/2006 03:08:23 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Lucia A Keegan

Cable 
Text:                                                                      
                                                                           
      
UNCLAS        PARIS 05185

SIPDIS
cxparis:
    ACTION: PAO
    INFO:   AMB ARS DCM POL

DISSEMINATION: PAOX
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: PRS: LPLATT
DRAFTED: PR:  FTHOMAS
CLEARED: NONE

VZCZCFRI123
OO RUEHC RUEAIIA RUEATRS RHEFDIA RUEKJCS RHEHAAA
RUCPDOC RUEHRL RUEHRO RUEHMO RUEHNO RUEHVEN RHMFIUU
DE RUEHFR #5185/01 2131053
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 011053Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY PARIS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9982
INFO RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPARTMENT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC//ASD/ISA//
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 6250
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 7872
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 5516
RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO 3566
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 3111
RHMFIUU/COMSIXTHFLT
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PARIS 005185 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR INR/R/MR; IIP/RW; IIP/RNY; BBG/VOA; IIP/WEU; 
AF/PA; EUR/WE /P/SP; D/C (MCCOO); EUR/PA; INR/P; INR/EUC; 
PM; OSC ISA FOR ILN; NEA; WHITE HOUSE FOR NSC/WEUROPE; DOC FOR 
ITA/EUR/FR AND PASS USTR/PA; USINCEUR FOR PAO; NATO/PA; MOSCOW/PA; 
ROME/PA. 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC KMDR FR
 
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION REPORT - Israel-Hezbollah Conflict - Iran's 
Involvement - Israel's Isolation - U.S. - France Diplomacy Efforts 
PARIS - Tuesday, August 01, 2006 
 
 
(A) SUBJECTS COVERED IN TODAY'S REPORT: 
 
Israel-Hezbollah Conflict - Iran's Involvement - Israel's Isolation 
- U.S. - France Diplomacy Efforts 
 
B) SUMMARY OF COVERAGE: 
 
Diplomatic efforts to reach a ceasefire in Lebanon dominate today 
news. Le Figaro's front page, "Diplomatic Efforts During the Lull in 
Lebanon," introduces several stories including the headline, 
"Condoleezza Rice Believes in a Ceasefire." La Croix's headline 
reads: "Israel Under Pressure from the Americans" and Liberation 
headlines, "Israel Under Pressure." In Le Parisien FM Douste-Blazy, 
who was in Beirut, says: "We must move very fast..." He is again 
quoted as saying: "If France had been heard in Rome, the Cana 
tragedy would not have happened..." Le Figaro reporting on FM 
Douste-Blazy's visit to Beirut notes his meeting with Iran's FM and 
quotes him: "Iran plays a stabilizing role" ..."and is an important 
actor in the Middle East." Le Parisien's cover story looks at Iran's 
formal entry onto the Israeli-Lebanese scene with Iranian FM 
Manouchehr Mottaki's arrival in Beirut yesterday. According to Le 
Parisien, "The Iranian regime has established for the first 
time-explicitly-a link between the war in Lebanon and its desire to 
possess the bomb." Iran's role in the conflict is also analyzed in 
an op-ed by defense researcher Louis Chagnon in Le Figaro, in which 
suggests that the way out is "to topple the Islamic regime in Iran." 
 (See Part C) 
 
The editorials in Le Figaro and Liberation emphasize Israel's 
growing isolation after the Cana tragedy, but Le Figaro's Luc de 
Barochez warns against "rejoicing over Israel's weakening" in the 
face of Iran's role in the conflict. (See Part C) 
 
Separately, Le Figaro runs an AFP report on the UN's passage 
yesterday of a Security Council Resolution giving Iran until August 
31 to suspend all uranium enrichment activity subject to IAEA 
verification. 
 
La Croix's cover story focuses on the U.S. role in the 
Israeli-Lebanese conflict under the headline "Israel under American 
Pressure." La Croix attributes Israel's 48-hour suspension of 
hostilities to pressure from Secretary of State Rice. But a report 
in Liberation comments on "the U.S. double game at the UN." "Rice's 
stance in favor of a ceasefire and a peace plan... is an optimistic 
signal, considering the growing tension at the UN... There is a 
difference between France's call for 'an immediate halt to the 
hostilities' and America's call for 'an urgent' but not an immediate 
ceasefire..." A La Croix article is entitled "French Diplomacy Seeks 
a Solution in Beirut." "For French officials, an immediate 
cease-fire and a political accord are the prerequisites of any 
international stabilization force-under the auspices of the UN-in 
which France would participate. Meanwhile, London and Washington 
want unconditionally to send an international force through NATO." 
La Croix quotes PM Villepin as saying an international force would 
risk becoming "inoperable" and seeing "extremely dangerous terrain" 
in the absence of a political accord. 
 
Le Figaro interviews Zbigniew Brzezinski about Secretary Rice's 
visit to the Middle East: "America's doings in this crisis have 
unfortunately contributed to the loss of life and to 
anti-Americanism... Secretary Rice must go to Damascus... The Bush 
and Rice policy of ostracizing Syria may be a big success for them, 
but it is a disaster for the U.S.... It is unfortunate, but Europe 
does not exist as a political entity..." On Iraq he says: "we are 
close to a civil war here... America's presence is increasingly 
destroying Iraq as a state... But unfortunately, because President 
Bush lives in his own world cut off from reality, American troops 
will probably stay in Iraq..." 
 
(C) SUPPORTING TEXT/BLOCK QUOTES: 
 
Israel-Hezbollah Conflict - Iran's Involvement - Israel's Isolation 
- U.S. - France Diplomacy Efforts 
 
"Israel's Reversal" 
Luc de Barochez in right-of-center Le Figaro (08/01): "Israel has an 
historic image as a winner of wars. But although it is normal to 
destroy Hezbollah's engines of death, it is totally inadmissible to 
kill children... even if, as Israel well knows, Hezbollah has a 
habit of using women and children as human shields... Iran supports 
Hezbollah, as part of its confrontation with the West in general and 
the U.S. in particular... But there is no reason to rejoice in 
Israel's isolation and weakening in the face of Iran... 
Franco-American rivalries must not impede the finding of a 
solution... Lebanon was wrong to have cancelled Secretary Rice's 
visit, for only the U.S. is in a position to impose its views in the 
Middle East... Diplomacy needs to show it can be imaginative if it 
wants to transform a military campaign into a political victory." 
 
"Isolation" 
Antoine de Gaudemar in left-of-center Liberation (08/01): "Israel is 
growing more isolated on the international scene. After the Cana 
tragedy, indignation has reached two of its staunchest allies, the 
U.S. and Great Britain... But Israel, which can rely on 
international disagreement, does not want to give Hezbollah the 
illusion of a victory. Israel knows that Hezbollah is Iran's tool in 
its anti-Semitic diatribes... But Israel, because of its 
intransigence, could be taking the risk of further isolation... And 
although Hezbollah has been striking civilians in Israel, it has won 
the war of images, those images of dead children in Cana." 
 
"Toppling Iran's Islamic Regime Is Only Durable Solution" 
Louis Chagnon, Defense Specialist, in right-of-center Le Figaro 
(08/01: "Iran wants the bomb, and it will get it... And Hezbollah is 
Iran's tool to threaten Israel... For the time being, Iran does not 
have the means to directly threaten Israel... Iran arms and finances 
Hezbollah... And while the world looks towards Lebanon, Iran 
continues on the path of the nuclear bomb. It is also widening its 
regional influence in places like Turkmenistan and Tajikistan... 
Iran wants to be and is becoming a power that cannot be disregarded. 
This would be a perfectly legitimate position if Iran were not 
governed by fundamentalist Islamic terrorists, who by playing with 
fire, could trigger a very wide ranging war. Meanwhile, the present 
conflict, like all conflicts in the region, plays into Iran's 
financial hands... because of Iran's position as an oil nation... In 
short, the Mullahs' regime, which feeds on the war, has every 
advantage to seeing the Lebanese-Israeli conflict last. Sending a UN 
peacekeeping force is simply unrealistic. The only durable solution 
is to topple Iran's Islamic regime and for the West to support 
Iran's democratic opposition. Syria, which does not possess Iran's 
financial oil means, would then be isolated and its bellicose stance 
would be greatly contained."  STAPLETON