AMBASSADOR ASKS PM TO PRESENT EXTRADITION TREATY

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 006518 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA, NEA/ARN, AND L/LEI JUSTICE FOR OIA FBI FOR OIO E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/13/2013 TAGS: PREL CJAN PTER US JO SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR ASKS PM TO PRESENT EXTRADITION TREATY TO PARLIAMENT REF: AMMAN 6398 Classified By: Amb. Edward W. Gnehm for reasons 1.5 (b)(d) ¶1. (C) The Ambassador on October 9 asked Prime Minister Ali Abul Ragheb to submit the U.S.-Jordan bilateral extradition treaty to Parliament for approval and work to bring it fully into force. Abul Ragheb was aware of the Ambassador's earlier request to the Foreign Minister (ref),and, in fact, reached for a file containing several memos about the treaty. Commenting that King Hussein had seemingly ignored some of the legal points in the file when he signed the decree bringing the treaty into force in 1995, he said that he would have to study the file to see whether there was a need for any further internal or bilateral discussions on the treaty. He promised to respond to our request as soon as possible. ¶2. (C) COMMENT: The Prime Minister did not flinch when asked to submit the treaty to Parliament -- but did not promise to do so, either. When the Ambassador queried him on possible political objections to the treaty in Parliament, Abul Ragheb responded (jokingly) that the treaty would "pass in a day" if he told MPs that he could use it to request the extradition of Iraqi National Congress President and Iraqi Governing Council member Ahmed Chalabi (who is under felony indictment in Jordan for bank fraud). Visit Embassy Amman's classified web site at http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/amman/ or access the site through the State Department's SIPRNET home page. GNEHM