BAHRAINI FM SAYS REFORM IS STILL ON ARAB LEAGUE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAMA 000528 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/14/2014 TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM BA SUBJECT: BAHRAINI FM SAYS REFORM IS STILL ON ARAB LEAGUE SUMMIT AGENDA Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Robert Ford, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak told us on April 13 that the next Arab League summit would issue a statement supporting domestic reforms inside Arab states. The Minister said that during the last Arab League ministerial in Cairo Egypt, Jordan and Yemen had each presented a draft text about domestic reforms in Arab countries. The ministers asked the three countries to work off-line and come up with a single text. Sheikh Mohammed said that basically this is finished. ¶2. (C) According to the Minister, the statement will not hold up any country as a model. Instead, it will highlight principles underpinning a vision of the future of Arab societies. The Minister said democracy and elections, human rights, women's rights and transparency figure among the principles. ¶3. (C) The Foreign Minister also said that the next summit would roll out again the Middle East peace initiative that was launched at the Beirut summit. (He noted that one of the reasons for delaying the summit this time was that the Sheikh Yassin killing was going to overshadow the summit's roll out of its peace initiative.) In addition, a Saudi Arabian document is the basis for reforms to the Arab League itself. ¶4. (C) Neither the King nor the Foreign Minister in their conversations with us April 13 would hazard a guess about when the summit would be held exactly. The Foreign Minister joked that he hoped it would be soon as it already has been enough of a headache for Bahrain. FORD