TERRORIST FINANCE: KUWAIT - STATUS OF GRF FREEZE

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 005587 SIPDIS STATE FOR EB/ESC/ESP (GLASS),S/CT, AND NEA TREASURY FOR OGC (AUFHAUSER),JUAN ZARATE, TASK FORCE ON TERRORIST FINANCING, AND OFAC (NEWCOMB) E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2012 TAGS: ETTC EFIN PTER PREL KU SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE: KUWAIT - STATUS OF GRF FREEZE REF: A. KUWAIT 5172 ¶B. STATE 216024 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Charge' d'Affaires a.i. Frank C. Urbancic for reasons 1. 5 (B) and (D) (C) On 29 December EconChief spoke with Ayham Al-Omar, Deputy Director for Americas Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and requested an update on the status of the GRF freeze order. Al-Omar reported that he had been informed by the Central Bank of Kuwait that it had ordered all institutions under its supervision to search for and freeze any GRF assets, and that all institutions reported back that they had found no such assets. Al-Omar told EconChief that he was still waiting for written confirmation of this from the Central Bank, and that when he received it, he would pass it to the Embassy. URBANCIC