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