PROPOSAL FOR A U.S.-UAE JOINT TERRORIST FINANCE

S E C R E T ABU DHABI 004828 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, S/CT, EB/ESC NSC FOR ZARATE TREASURY FOR GLASER, MURDEN, AND HEFFERNAN MANAMA FOR OFAC ATTACHE E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2015 TAGS: KTFN PTER EFIN AE SUBJECT: PROPOSAL FOR A U.S.-UAE JOINT TERRORIST FINANCE COORDINATING COMMITTEE REF: SECSTATE 208617 Classified By: Ambassador Michele J. Sison for reasons 1.4 (b & d). ¶1. (S) On November 26, Ambassador and Econchief met with Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser Al-Suwaidi and the head of the Central Bank's Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious Cases Unit, Abdulrahim Al-Awadi, to discuss reftel proposal for the establishment of a Joint Terrorist Finance Coordinating Committee. Al-Suwaidi welcomed the document saying that he would give it his close consideration. He said that the UAEG would need to discuss the proposal internally in order to be able to provide appropriate input to shaping the proposal, and promised to get back to the Ambassador with his thoughts. Al-Suwaidi welcomed the fact that the proposal focused on training cooperation, noting that the UAE had been chosen to take the lead on MENA/FATF training in three key areas: Hawala (informal money remittances),Cash Couriers, and Charities. ¶2. (S) Turning the discussion to the regulation of charities, Al-Suwaidi said that the government's focus should be on ensuring that funds are not misused rather than on the identity of donors. He explained that -- under Islam -- donations were a private matter. He stressed that it would be both more efficient and more culturally sensitive to focus efforts on ensuring that funds went where they were supposed to rather than to expend efforts to try and identify all of the donors. He mentioned that he had discussed his views on charities with Treasury U/S Levey on the margins of the IMF/WB annual meetings in Washington in September. Al-Awadi noted that the governor's views were shared by other countries in the GCC. ¶3. (S) Al-Suwaidi also stressed that charities needed to be handled with sensitivity and that "indiscriminate" freezing of assets would be counterproductive. He noted that the UAE had frozen the assets of charities "belonging to orphans in India" and had come under intense criticism for this action. We have requested a follow-up meeting with Governor Al-Suwaidi on December 10 to obtain UAEG interagency feedback on the proposal. SISON