Syria
In the Press
Monday, July 14, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
By Thomas Adamson
Le Figaro (France)
"Pari gagnant"
"Pari gagnant"
France's right-leaning newspaper Le Figaro has a pretty gushing editorial about Nicolas Sarkozy - labelling the freshly born Union for the Mediterranean a diplomatic coup for him. The title "Pari Gagnant" - a "winning bet" - is a play on words: "Pari" referring to the French capital too, of course. Praise is heaped on him for getting Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas around the same table at the same time. Looking back to March 2007, it says, who'd have thought that he'd be able to unify Europeans, Israelis and Arabs ?
Al-Hayat (Pan-Arab)
Al-Hayat, the London-based pan-Arab newspaper, features a telling front-page image of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad covering his face, with Israel's Olmert in the foreground, highlighting the supposed rift between the two leaders. In general, the paper paints a flattering picture of Sarkozy, saying that with the successful launch of the Union for the Mediterranean he's perfected his image. And it says he's done it at the right moment, when other world leaders are in weak positions.
Jerusalem Post (Israel)
In the Jersualem Post, two seperate pictures of Assad and Olmert. It says that although the two leaders didn't meet in Paris, Olmert has sent Assad a positive message to begin direct negotiations.
New York Times (USA)
The New York Times says that Sarkozy's helping to bring Syria out from the shadows. The US daily features a picture of a beaming Sarkozy with Middle-East leaders. They say the Union for the Mediterranean puts an end to the isolation of Syrian President Assad, after he was ostracized over his alliance with Iran and his country's alleged involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime-Minister Rafik Hariri.
The Times (UK)
This British paper has done a feature uncovering the truths of the French Bastille day. The paper was founded in 1785 - four years before the French Revolution. And it's dug around its archives to show some of the original reports from the storming of the Bastille. Did you know that the revolutionaries didn't actually destroy the bastille on July 14, but a demolition crew spent months taking it apart at a cost of 200,000 "livres" ?
