DEATH OF SWEDISH DIPLOMAT ON ROAD FROM BAGHDAD MAY

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 002649 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/23/2007 TAGS: PREL IZ SW JO SUBJECT: DEATH OF SWEDISH DIPLOMAT ON ROAD FROM BAGHDAD MAY CONVINCE MORE TO FLY Classified By: Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm. Reasons 1.5 (b,d). ¶1. (U) Jonas Weiss, Sweden's Amman-based Iraq Watcher, was killed in a car accident on the Amman-Baghdad road on Wednesday, May 22. Weiss was returning to Amman after spending several days making a periodic visit to Iraq. The accident took place at approximately 0430 in morning, about 100km west of the Jordan-Iraq border. ¶2. (C) Increasing numbers of Amman-based diplomats have begun to fly to Baghdad, avoiding the 10 hour hazardous drive. Dr. Claude Ellner, Germany's Amman-resident Charge in Baghdad told us that Greek, French, Spanish and other diplomats have flown of late. Mr. Mihara of the Japanese Embassy's Iraq Section said that the UN is also considering whether to allow its Baghdad staff to take advantage of the regular humanitarian flights operating from Amman. We expect that Jonas Weiss' tragic death will increase pressure to allow diplomatic personnel to travel to Iraq by air, rather than on the dangerous Amman-Baghdad highway. ¶3. (U) Bio Note: Weiss arrived in Amman in the summer of 2001 and quickly became a familiar face on the Amman diplomatic circuit, freely sharing his observations of life in Baghdad and other parts of Iraq. On this most recent trip he had traveled to Basra. He spent a portion of his youth in Washington D.C., graduated from American University, and had served previously at the Swedish Embassies in Moscow and Belgrade. Gnehm