Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
03ABUDHABI724
2003-02-09 13:14:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abu Dhabi
Cable title:  

UAE DEPUTY PM PANDERS TO PUBLIC

Tags:  PREL UN IZ TC 
pdf how-to read a cable
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Diana T Fritz 06/05/2007 10:35:05 AM From DB/Inbox: Search Results

Cable 
Text: 
 
 
CONFIDENTIAL

SIPDIS
TELEGRAM February 09, 2003


To: No Action Addressee 

Action: Unknown 

From: AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI (ABU DHABI 724 - PRIORITY) 

TAGS: PREL 

Captions: None 

Subject: UAE DEPUTY PM PANDERS TO PUBLIC OPINION ON 
 IRAQ 

Ref: None 
_________________________________________________________________
C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 00724

SIPDIS
CXABU:
 ACTION: POL 
 INFO: RSO AMB DCM P/M ECON 

DISSEMINATION: POL
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: CDA:TEWILLIAMS
DRAFTED: POL:STWILLIAMS
CLEARED: NONE

VZCZCADI812
PP RUEHC RUEHDE RUCNRAQ RHEHNSC RUEAIIA
DE RUEHAD #0724 0401314
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 091314Z FEB 03
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
INFO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8358
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI 2789
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC
C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000724 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/NGA AND NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2013
TAGS: PREL UN IZ TC
SUBJECT: UAE DEPUTY PM PANDERS TO PUBLIC
OPINION ON IRAQ

REF: Abu Dhabi 676

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000724

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/NGA AND NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2013
TAGS: PREL UN IZ TC
SUBJECT: UAE DEPUTY PM PANDERS TO PUBLIC
OPINION ON IRAQ

REF: Abu Dhabi 676


1. (U) Classified by Charge d'Affaires Thomas
Williams for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D).


2. (U) The Emirates News Agency reported 2/9 that UAE Deputy
Prime Minister Shaykh Sultan Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan, on the
margins of a meeting with visiting former UNSCOM inspector
Scott Ritter, "stressed the need to allow the UN inspectors
the opportunity to carry on their search for weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq." Sultan was also quoted as saying "the
region cannot tolerate another war which may result in a
catastrophe of unpredictable magnitude." The Deputy PM, who
is also UAE President Shaykh Zayid's second eldest son, used
this opportunity to call for a lifting of the international
sanctions on Iraq which he labeled "non-humanitarian" and
"the causes (sic) of (the) death of thousands of innocent
Iraqis and of (the) demolition of Iraq's economy and
infrastructure." Finally, Sultan called on the
international community to "apply pressure on Israel to stop
its frenzied war against the Palestinian people."


3. (U) Ritter's 2/8 lecture at the Sultan Bin Zayid-
sponsored, Arab League-associated, Zayid Center for
Coordination and Follow-Up received widespread, front-page
coverage in the UAE press (reftel). Ritter, who charged
that the USG was in violation of international law, was
quoted as saying that more than 95 percent of Iraq's WMD
have been destroyed. He claimed that the photographs
presented by the Secretary during his 2/5 UNSC presentation
were taken during the Iran-Iraq war. As we previously
reported, Ritter went out of his way to pan the Secretary's
presentation, claiming that the USG charges are "inaccurate"
and that Iraq had only one anthrax lab, which was
"completely eliminated and destroyed" in 1996. Ritter
complained that he had been "interrogated by the FBI" who
"put a lot of pressure on me and accused me of spying for
Iraq" following his latest Iraq visit. He then launched
into a wholesale attack on U.S. policy, comparing it to "a
car driven by a drunk driver, who is driving aimlessly and
pushing himself to a disaster."


4. (C) Comment: As we noted reftel, UAE Armed Forces Chief
of Staff Muhammad Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan and Information
Minister Abdullah Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan both privately
welcomed the Secretary's presentation. Their elder half-
brother Sultan is the most outspoken of Zayid's sons and
often does not coordinate his statements with the rest of
the leadership; we have been bluntly informed on at least
one occasion that Sultan's remarks "do not reflect UAEG
views." Nevertheless, Sultan frequently reflects popular
sentiment and he is well aware that the overwhelming
majority of Emiratis (71 percent according to a recent
confidential poll) are against military action in Iraq.

SIPDIS

WILLIAMS