IRANIAN DEPUTY FONMIN IN AMMAN TALKS IRAQ, PEACE

S E C R E T AMMAN 002505

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/28/2013
TAGS: PREL IR JO
SUBJECT: IRANIAN DEPUTY FONMIN IN AMMAN TALKS IRAQ, PEACE
PROCESS; KHARAZI EXPRESSES CONCERNS ABOUT MEK ON
JORDAN-IRAQ BORDER

REF: A. FBIS IAP20030423000043

B. FBIS GMP20030423000137

C. FBIS IAP20030423000076

Classified By: PolCouns Doug Silliman for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D)

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IRANIAN IN AMMAN
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1. (SBU) Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and
African Affairs, Sayed Mohammed Sadr, visited Amman April 23.
He met with King Abdullah -- for whom he carried a message
from President Khatami -- and Foreign Minister Marwan
Muasher. The official press releases following the meetings
(refs) presented a decidedly moderate discussion. The most
radical statement attributed to Sadr was that "the Zionist
regime of Israel should be strongly considered a serious
threat to the region."


2. (S) Ali al-Ayed, FonMin Muasher's personal assistant,
told PolCouns April 24 that Sadr took an even more moderate
line in private with the Jordanians. Sadr told FonMin
Muasher that Iran supports "the same outcome in Iraq as
Jordan" -- the emergence of a strong, stable Iraqi state. On
the peace process, Ayed said Sadr expressed pessimism that
the formation of a new Palestinian cabinet and presentation
of the Roadmap would lead to concrete progress, not because
of the process itself, but because the Iranian government
doubts whether Israeli PM Sharon will be willing to reach an
acceptable settlement with Palestinians. "Sadr seemed to be
completely in the reformist camp," Ayed commented.

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KHARAZI CONCERNED ABOUT MEK IN IRAQ
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3. (S) Separately, Foreign Minister Muasher told the
Ambassador and PolCouns April 21 that, during the April 18
meeting of Iraq's neighbors in Riyadh, Iranian Foreign
Minister Kharazi asked that Jordan admit a number of
Iraq-based members of the Mujeddin-e-Khalq (MEK) terrorist
group currently stuck at the Iraq-Jordan border. Kharazi
asked that Jordan then arrest the MEK members and extradite
them to Iraq. Muasher commented that "this is a political
headache we don't need" and said that Jordan would not admit
the MEK members. Muasher asked Kharazi about the nearly 1000
Iranian Kurdish refugees also at the border (who had fled the
UNHCR-run refugee camp at al-Tash, west of Baghdad). Kharazi
said these refugees "were not Iranian and would not be
admitted to Iran." Again, Muasher commented, Jordan would
not admit these Iranians into its territory.

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COMMENT
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4. (S) Despite the moderate nature of these discussions,
the Jordanians understand the dual nature of the Iranian
government, and remain concerned about continued Iranian
support for Hizballah and other regional terrorist groups.
Last year, three members of Hizbollah were arrested in Jordan
trying to smuggle arms to the West Bank: the Iranians
intervened with Jordan to secure their release. In addition,
a recent seizure of U.S.-produced C-4 being smuggled from
Syria into Jordan originated in Iran (and had been shipped to
Iran by the U.S. in 1978). It is this kind of Iranian
behavior that has caused the King to postpone several times
acceptance of an invitation to visit Teheran.
GNEHM