Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05BAGHDAD2446
2005-06-09 08:06:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

TALABANI AGGRIEVED WITH JAFARI EVEN AS HE MAKES

Tags:  PREL PGOV KDEM KISL IZ 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002446 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KISL IZ
SUBJECT: TALABANI AGGRIEVED WITH JAFARI EVEN AS HE MAKES
STRONG EFFORT ON SUNNI OUTREACH

REF: A) BAGHDAD 2427 B) 2436

Classified By: Classified by James F. Jeffrey, Charge d'Affaires, for r

easons 1.4 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002446

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KISL IZ
SUBJECT: TALABANI AGGRIEVED WITH JAFARI EVEN AS HE MAKES
STRONG EFFORT ON SUNNI OUTREACH

REF: A) BAGHDAD 2427 B) 2436

Classified By: Classified by James F. Jeffrey, Charge d'Affaires, for r

easons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Summary: President Talabani told Charge in a June 8
meeting that Prime Minister Jafari is carrying out his office
unilaterally and marginalizing Kurdish officials. Talabani
said he planned to meet Jafari and the Supreme Council for
Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) leader Abd al-Aziz
al-Hakim that night to complain over issues ranging from
slights over property and ethnocentric speeches to
destabilizing moves that have blocked money allotted to
Kirkuk and disempowered Kurdish cabinet officials. Talabani
said his relationship with Mas'ud Barzani is excellent and
both men are working together in an outreach to Turkmen
leaders in Kirkuk. Talabani said he supported adding 25
Sunni Arabs to the constitution drafting committee. He
agreed with the Charge's call for serious Sunni Arab
inclusion and promised to work with MNF-I in resolving
security problems in the insurgency-plagued city of Hawija.
End Summary.

--------------
An Internal Iraqi Summit Set for Tonight
--------------


2. (C) President Talabani told Charge and DCM in a June 8
meeting that he was attending an internal Iraqi summit that
night to discuss a host of accumulating disputes over
government power sharing, Kirkuk, and Sunni Arab inclusion in
the TNA Constitution Drafting Committee. The meeting will
bring together Talabani, Prime Minister Jafari, Vice
President Adil abd al-Mehdi and SCIRI leader Abd al-Aziz
al-Hakim is hosting. Talabani said that he considered this
group to be the key leadership committee in Iraq. Hakim, he
pointed out, only allowed Jafari to take the Prime
Ministership in exchange for being considered the "political
authority" (marja) of the Shia coalition.

--------------
Concern Over Jafari's Expanding Power
--------------


3. (C) Talabani told the Charge that he is increasingly
concerned that Prime Minister Jafari is acting beyond his
legal authorities in running the state. The key difference
in their views, Talabani made clear, lies in their definition

of Iraq's "government." Jafari seems to think he possesses
unilateral executive authority, Talabani said, but TAL
Article 24 defines the "Iraqi Transitional Government" as
consisting of the National Assembly, Presidency Council and
Council of Ministers.


4. (C) Talabani said this article leads to the conclusion
that "there must be agreement between the two lists (Kurdish
and Shia) about everything." Talabani proceeded to lay out
Kurdish grievances in detail. (Note: The points echoed those
found in a blunt and angry letter Talabani recently wrote to
Jafari, a copy of which was passed to Charge on June 7 by
Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Shaways (REFTEL B). End Note)


5. (C) The following were the key grievances:

-- OBJECTING TO LAITH KUBBA'S APPOINTMENT: Talabani said that
Jafari acted illegally in unilaterally selecting Laith Kubba
as the government's spokesman. Charge replied that he
understood Kubba to be Jafari's personal spokesman. Talabani
shot back that Kubba is acting with the authority of a Deputy
Minister, a position that must be approved by the cabinet and
ratified by the Presidency Council. (NOTE: Talabani's letter
denounces Kubba for his allegedly "chauvinistic and
antagonistic position towards federalism as well as his
provocative statements in America against the rights of the
Kurdish people..." END NOTE)

-- FREEZING DPM SHAWAYS OUT OF KEY COMMITTEES: Talabani said
Jafari has frozen his deputy prime ministers out of power,
relegating them to little more than "ministers of state."
Jafari's has created nine ministerial committees directly
reportable to him, Talabani complained, subsuming portfolios
the deputies should handle. (NOTE: The letter refers to
this insult to Rowsch Shaways as "an aggression on the rights
of the representatives of the Kurdish people and national
consensus." END NOTE)

-- UNACCOUNTABLE BUDGET EXPENDITURES: Talabani said that
Jafari has spent some $38 million since coming to office
without giving the Presidency Council any idea where the
money has gone. (NOTE: In previous meetings with Emboffs,
Talabani has accused ex-President Ghazi al-Yawar of the same,
threatening to order audits by the Public Integrity
Commission. END NOTE)

-- BARHAM SALIH DISEMPOWERED: Talabani complained that Jafari
had robbed Planning Minister Barham Salih of real authority.
(NOTE: His letter angrily describes Jafari of "usurping"
Salih's "rights" in violation of a side agreement made on the
day the government was formed. END NOTE)

-- UNDOING KIRKUK AGREEMENT: Talabani said that Jafari has
undone a major achievement of the Allawi government in
blocking an agreement to provide $125 million in funding to
the Iraqi Property Claims Commission and the so-called
Article 58 Committee, whih would help resolve the Kirkuk
situation. $25 million had been disbursed by the time Jafari
took office, Talabani said, and Jafari has blocked the
disbursement of the remaining $100 million to the two
entities.

-- BADGERING KURDS AND BILKING THE PRESIDENCY: Talabani said
the Jafari government has inappropriately badgered former
National Council Speaker (and PUK leader) Fuad Ma'asum for
the return of his armored car. Ma'asum still needs the
vehicle and is a key TNA official, Talabani pointed out.
More seriously, Talabani said, the Jafari cabinet has
confiscated significant holdings from the presidency office
without accounting for them. Talabani said that 19 cars have
been taken from him and 140 are registered to his office with
no record of where they are. Furthermore, the presidency has
control over 12 houses but Talabani does not know where they
are and has no house of his own. (COMMENT: These
irregularities may be the responsibility of former President
Ghazi al-Yawar, not Jafari. END COMMENT)

--------------
Progress on Sunni and Kirkuk Outreach
--------------


6. (C) Once he moved off of Kurdish grievances with Jafari,
Talabani's mood brightened and he laid out progress on
several fronts:

-- STRONG SUNNI ARAB PRESENCE FOR CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE:
Talabani said he had met with several Sunni Arab leaders and
supported the addition of 25 Sunni Arab members to the
Constitution Drafting Committee. Talabani said he expected
them to act as "equal members" while respecting that the
ultimate product of the committee would pass through the
National Assembly for approval. He expected Abd al-Aziz
al-Hakim to agree to this formulation, which brings the
committee up to 80 members. The issue would be finalized in
2-3 days, he said.

-- SOLID RELATIONS WITH BARZANI: Talabani said his
relationship with Barzani is excellent. He encouraged the DCM
to go forward with a planned trip to meet Barzani in the
north in the coming days. Talabani said that Barzani had
attended on invitation the recent 13th PUK anniversary
celebration in Dokan, a major statement of unity. The KRG
has officially begun its work with the successful election of
a speaker for the assembly and a cabinet. "All problems have
been solved," Talabani said.

-- IMPROVING RELATIONS IN KIRKUK: Talabani said he believed
Iraq faced a "golden opportunity" to solve the problems of
Kirkuk and was arguing this to Barzani as well. Talabani
said he had personally received Faruq Abdallah, head of the
Iraqi Turkmen Front, and reached agreement that the Turkmen
deserve a role in the administration of Kirkuk. Talabani
said he had convinced Barzani to join him in working with the
Front. Talabani added that he considered the Turkish
government's attitude in the area improved.

-- TROUBLE IN HAWIJA: Talabani agreed with Charge that the
city of Hawija south of Kirkuk is seeing problematic
insurgent activity, particularly from the Ansar al-Sunna.
Talabani said he believed the group was exploiting Arab
concerns in the province over Kurdish influence. The key
will be improving the relationships in the area. "We must
convince the Arabs to live with us," he said. "Hawija has
always had strong cells of Syrian Ba'athists and Saddam's
Ba'athists." Talabani was concerned that Iraqi and U.S.
forces better coordinate arrest and detention efforts in the
area, he said.
--------------
Looking Forward to New Ambassador
--------------

7. (C) Talabani was aware of Ambassador Khalilzad's SFRC
hearing and said he looked forward to his arrival. Talabani
agreed when Charge urged him to continue his positive work on
Sunni Arab inclusion in the Constitution Committee. Talabani
also agreed with Charge that a stronger dialogue with Jafari
was needed to resolve the disputes he laid out.

--------------
COMMENT: Iraq's Embattled Executive
--------------


8. (C) COMMENT: As with Shaways and in DCM's meetings with FM
Zebari and Finance Minister Allawi, we urged Talabani to
pursue constant, non-confrontational dialogue on this and to
make haste in the process of adding Sunni Arabs to the
constitution drafting committee. Those are the paths to
resolving these disputes and these leaders appear to be
heading down them. The internal summit Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim
is hosting is the right forum for these men to hash out power
sharing on the ground. And the constitution committee, now
poised to include a large delegation of Sunni Arabs, is the
right forum for them to enshrine power sharing in the law.
END COMMENT.


9. (U) REO HILLA, REO BASRA, REO MOSUL, and REO KIRKUK,
minimize considered.
Jeffrey