BAHRAIN NON-COMMITTAL ON CUBA AND CHINA UNCHR

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAMA 000485 SIPDIS DEPT FOR NEA/RA, NEA/ARP, DRL/MLA, AND IO/SH E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/06/2014 TAGS: PHUM PREL BA UNHRC SUBJECT: BAHRAIN NON-COMMITTAL ON CUBA AND CHINA UNCHR RESOLUTIONS REF: STATE 74060 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Robert Ford, reason 1.5 (d) ¶1. (U) Foreign Affairs MinState Muhammad Abdulghaffar responded to Charge's April 3 delivery of reftel demarche with a promise to refer the matter to his staff and Geneva mission for study. On April 6, MFA Director for International Organization Affairs said he had of no new instructions and would relay our latest request for abstentions on the Cuba and China UNCHR resolutions to his superiors. ¶2. (C) Comment: So far, we sense little traction in Manama for our efforts to bring Bahrain to abstain on these two votes. The MFA is aware of Assistant Secretary Holmes' demarche to the Bahraini Ambassador in Washington last week, but we can perceive no change in Bahraini tone yet. It looks like it will be an uphill battle to secure these Bahraini voting abstentions; the Bahrainis don't like to make waves and they don't like to break Arab ranks. We should be prepared to make continued passes at the Bahrainis here and in Washington. If there are other Arab states that are going to be helpful on these resolutions, that be a useful argument with the GoB. FORD