UAE CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY IN NO HURRY TO ALLOW

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 003103 SIPDIS DEPT FOR NEA/ARP, EB/CBA, NEA/PPR, EB/TRA/OTP/AVP USDOC FOR 1000/OC/ USDOC FOR 4520/ITA/IEP/ONE USDOC FOR 4530/ITA/MAC/ONE/DGUGLIELMI 4500/ITA/MAC/DAS/WILLIAMSON E.O. 12958: DECL 06/30/08 TAGS: EAIR PREL ECON ETRD TC SUBJECT: UAE CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY IN NO HURRY TO ALLOW PASSANGER FLIGHTS TO BAGHDAD REF: SECSTATE 181618 ¶1. (U) Classified by A/DCM Tom Williams, for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D). ¶2. (C) Acting DCM and Econchief met with Mohammed Al- Ghaith, the Director General of the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority on June 29. In the course of the conversation, Ghaith noted that Emirates Airlines had approached him about passenger flights to Baghdad, but he had told them that this was premature. The airport is still closed and the security situation is too unstable. He noted that there are a number of steps that must be taken to reopen the airport and to reestablish passenger flights to Baghdad. In his view, it will be 3 to 6 months before he would be comfortable authorizing passenger flights to Baghdad. He also noted that Emirates Airlines was not pushing him to speed up the process. ¶3. (U) In a separate meeting, the MFA asked about the steps Gulf Air needs to take to fly passenger flights to Baghdad as soon as the airport opens. Post passed the MFA and Civil Aviation Authority the text of Secretary Powell's letter to Bahraini Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Mubarak al-Khalifa. Wahba