SECURING UNDELIVERED IRAQI MEDIA EQUIPMENT: UPDATE

UNCLAS ISTANBUL 001596 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/SE, NEA/NGA AND NEA/PPD BAGHDAD FOR OFFICE OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EFIN IZ KPAO TU SUBJECT: SECURING UNDELIVERED IRAQI MEDIA EQUIPMENT: UPDATE REF: A. STATE 284988 ¶B. ANKARA 6534 Unclassified - Entire Text. SIPDIS ¶1. P/E Chief met on Monday, October 27 with al-Huda San Company General Manager Mutasem Mujahed and his new parter Ibrahim Kahraman of the Kaptan Foreign Trade Company to review the status of the equipment order cited in Ref a. The two confirmed that all links between Sega Dis Ticaret and al-Huda had been terminated, and that al-Huda is now working exclusively with the Ankara-based Kaptan company on the order. They added that the information provided to us last week by Sega is out-of-date, and that in fact al-Huda is prepared to go forward with the contract without change in price or quantity. What they need to proceed, however, is a green light from the Turkish Foreign Trade Undersecretariat, which they understand is contingent on that office receiving the go-ahead from the State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO) in Baghdad. Kahraman noted that their Dubai-based partner, Mr. Wadi Handal, has already been in contact with the CPA, but that to date SOMO has not provided the required notification to Ankara via the Turkish Commercial Attache in Baghdad. They provided a copy of a September 21st letter from Gary Thatcher, Director of Strategic Communication at the CPA, requesting delivery of the order, which was addressed to SOMO, with information copies to al-Huda and the Iraqi Ministry of Trade. ¶2. Mujahed and Kahraman noted that the payment for the order, as well as for other items in the Turkey-Iraq protocol that was signed during State Minister Tuzman's trip, is currently in Halkbank, where it has been blocked at the direction of the Turkish government. (They estimated the total amount at 200 million USD.) They concurred with the information in the Thatcher letter that payment would follow delivery of the material to Iraqi Media Network (IMN) warehouses in Baghdad. The two stressed that the equipment is not yet in place in Turkey, but will only be procured from Europe and Canada after the Turkish government gives them the go-ahead. They estimated that ordering the material and delivering it to Baghdad would take six weeks to two months from that point. ¶3. Minimized considered HQ Coalition Provisional Auth Baghdad. SMITH