MidastWire

On November 9, the Hariri-owned anti-Syrian al-Mustaqbal daily carried the following report by Rami Ibrahim: “Egyptian governmental newspapers waged yesterday a widespread attack against the Syrian leadership in response to the criticisms which emerged from Damascus regarding the reception of MP Sa’d al-Hariri, the leader of the Future movement. This was considered the beginning of political tensions between Cairo and Damascus especially since the three Egyptian newspapers “al-Akhbar”, “al-Gomhuriya” and “Rose al-Youssef” are all governmental newspapers which are close to the political leadership.

“Journalist Ibrahim Sa’da, the former editor-in-chief of al-Akhbar newspaper, waged his attack on Syria on Wednesday and Thursday in a two-part article headline “Syrian stories and anecdotes”. He considered that the Syrian attack which was waged by Fu’ad Sharbaji, the former head of Syrian Television, targeted Egypt, its political stances and leader President Hosni Mubarak. He assured that this journalist did not read and check what was said by PM Sa’d al-Hariri in the press conference he held in Cairo following his meeting with the Egyptian president, before “he stooped to this level and wrote what he wrote”.

“Sa’da confirmed “Mubarak’s reassurance to al-Hariri that the Lebanese people were entitled to hold the presidential elections and that all foreign interference should be distanced from these elections. This is no way harmed the Syrian regime to provoke such an attack”... As for Muhammad Ali Ibrahim, the editor-in-chief of al-Gomhuriya, he wrote under the headline “Those with a guilty conscience”... that al-Sharbaji was upset by the statements of MP Sa’d al-Hariri in Cairo regarding a plan drawn by a Syrian officer to assassinate him and al-Sanyurah, because the Syrian journalist imagined that Egypt was the one who unveiled the plan to MP al-Hariri...

“Ibrahim then wondered why the Syrian journalist thought that al-Hariri’s statements targeted Syria when he spoke about foreign interference. He wrote: “I ask the former director of the Damascus television why he believed the man did not mean France, America, Israel or Iran, knowing that each of the latter has its agenda and supporters in Lebanon. Why was Syria the first to come to mind when talking about foreign interference? Is it the truth that emerged despite him or the traditional hostility between Syria and al-Hariri that made him think that every interview held by Sa’d is one targeting Syria?”…

“For his part, journalist Karam Jabr wrote under the headline “New Syrian insults against Egypt” that the writer was a calamity because he pulled Syria back to the times of Arab insults, [a time] which has long passed. He said: “Had an Egyptian author wrote one word about Syria or its president, the Egyptians themselves would’ve rushed to defend the good relations between the two countries.” - Al Mustaqbal, Lebanon