IRAQI MFA INSPECTION TEAM TO RECOMMEND REOPENING

S E C R E T AMMAN 003904

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2013
TAGS: PGOV PREL MOPS PHUM IZ JO
SUBJECT: IRAQI MFA INSPECTION TEAM TO RECOMMEND REOPENING
IRAQI EMBASSY IN AMMAN FOR CONSULAR SERVICES

REF: STATE 156956

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


1. (S) PolCouns met June 26 with the members of the Iraqi
MFA's inspection team, Amb. Zaid Noori and Abdul Baqi Ismail
Ali (ref). Noori said that they had no trouble getting into
the Iraqi Embassy in Amman on June 25 and had found the
morale of the Iraqi staff quite high, "since all the
intelligence people have left and only real MFA people
remain." Ali, who Noori described as "the most senior
financial inspector in the MFA," had just begun his
examination of the accounts of the Iraqi Embassy and could
not yet draw any conclusions. Ali said that, from records in
Baghdad, there was a real possibility that the Iraqi
embassies in Beirut and Damascus had been used to collect and
funnel to Baghdad kickbacks from illegally smuggled oil.
Noori and Ali hoped to travel to Beirut on June 28, then on
to Damascus June 30 or July 1 to conduct preliminary embassy
inspections there.


2. (S) Noori related that they had discovered a quantity of
handguns, AK-47's, and ammunition "inappropriate for a
diplomatic mission" stored at the Iraqi Embassy compound. He
said that he would almost certainly ask the Jordanian
government to take possession of the weapons for safekeeping
until a new Iraqi government could decide on what to do with
them. In the meantime, he had recorded all of the serial
numbers of the weapons and, on his return to Baghdad, would
try to determine their origin within the Iraqi government.


3. (C) Noori said that a second key goal of their mission
to Amman was to look at the possibility of reopening consular
services for the Iraqi community in Jordan, which he
estimated at 300,000. He said that many of the Iraqis who
had traveled from Jordan to Iraq after the war had done so on
expired passports. Since the MFA is not yet issuing new
passports, those Iraqis do not have the travel documents
needed to gain entry into other countries. Noori said he
would recommend to the MFA's Steering Committee in Baghdad
that the Iraqi Embassy in Amman reopen for consular services
as soon as possible, and that the CPA consider issuing some
type of temporary travel documents to permit Iraqis to enter
and leave Iraq until formal passports are issued.
GNEHM