MFA UNDERSECRETARY ON ARAB LEAGUE POSTPONEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 001010

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/28/2014
TAGS: PREL XF KU
SUBJECT: MFA UNDERSECRETARY ON ARAB LEAGUE POSTPONEMENT

REF: SECSTATE 67135

Classified By: CDA FRANK URBANCIC REASON: 1.4 (B,D)


1. (C) Summary. Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Khaled
Al-Jarallah told Charge on March 28 that although Tunisia has
postponed the Arab League Summit due to lack of consensus on
reform, the topic of reform is now on the League's agenda and
the GCC will continue to push it. End Summary.

(C) Summit's Postponement
--------------


2. (C) Charge had requested the appointment with Al-Jarallah
to deliver the Secretary's Oral Message (ref A). With
Tunisia's postponement of the Arab League Summit, he inquired
about the reason for delay and the prospect of reform among
Arab League countries and within the League itself.
Al-Jarallah said Tunisia had made the decision by itself to
postpone the Summit after it became apparent that there was
deep division among members regarding the reform agenda. He
said it would have been difficult for Tunisia to tell the
leaders to come when there was no consensus among the foreign
ministers. Al-Jarallah said that several foreign ministers
wanted the summit to go on as scheduled, but he affirmed that
"Tunis made the right decision to postpone". He admitted it
was not easy to postpone a summit but said that the League
now "needs time to recover from this situation." He
expressed his concern however that Tunisia had not set a new
date for the postponed summit.

(C) Reform on the Agenda
--------------


3. (C) Al-Jarallah stressed that political and social reform
was a "hot issue" and that Kuwait and other members of the
GCC would continue pushing it within the Arab League. He
said a draft reform paper was already circulating, describing
the document as "perfect." According to Al-Jarallah, the
paper addresses the issues of education, democracy, the role
of women, and human rights. He said the work now was to
build upon this initial draft. "Kuwait will do our best to
achieve targets and progress on these issues," he said,
adding that some countries are ready to accept and welcome
these ideas. He said the issue would now receive more
attention among the Arab media and officials and that such
discussion would be "good for the Arab world." Despite
Charge's inquiry, Al-Jarallah avoided discussion of the
positions of other Arab League members or identifying the
authors of the draft.


(C) Internal Arab League Reform
--------------


4. (C) Al-Jarallah also confirmed that there was
disagreement among Arab League members regarding reforming
the organization itself. Speaking of Arab League Secretary
General Amer Moussa, the Undersecretary said: "Although he
appears to be pushing (reform) for the Arab League, he is
not. He is trying only to do something for himself."
Al-Jarallah said the GCC countries would offer other ideas
for reforming the organization, but did not specify what
those would be.

URBANCIC