AMRE MUSA AND IRAQIS THINKING OF NOVEMBER MEETING

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 004344

SIPDIS

CENTCOM FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/21/2015
TAGS: IZ PGOV PINS PREL
SUBJECT: AMRE MUSA AND IRAQIS THINKING OF NOVEMBER MEETING
ON NATIONAL ACCORD

REF: BAGHDAD

Classified By: PolCouns Robert Ford, reason 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Arab League Secretary General Amre Musa
told Charge October 21 evening that he hopes to hold an
initial conference in Cairo in mid-November for Iraqi
political factions aimed at facilitating national
reconciliation. This initial meeting should lead to a
larger meeting in Baghdad. These meetings would include
hard-line Sunni Arab rejectionists, such as the Muslim
Ulema Council and Arab nationalists. Musa accepted
Charge's point that these meetings should encourage broader
participation in the political process but not signal a
return of another Sunni Arab ruling clique. Foreign
Minister Zebari told Charge later October 21 that the idea
of a national political conference brokered by the Arab
League was fine if limited to Iraqi political
groups, and include neither the Iraqi Government nor
foreign observers. End Summary.

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MUSA CONFIDENT OF HIS CONFERENCE IDEA
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2. (C) Saying he saw a better mood among the Iraqi political
forces, Arab League Secretary General Amre Musa is moving
ahead
with two conferences to generate an Arab League-brokered
national "accord." Musa told Charge the evening of October 21
that the Arab League in Cairo would host an initial
meeting would be held in mid-November among key Iraqi
political
factions. A larger meeting would follow among all the
political forces. Musa readily agreed with Charge's point
that
the larger conference would need to be in Baghdad.

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SUNNI HARD-LINERS SOFTENING ?
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3. (C) Amre Musa said he found even hard-line Sunni Arab
rejectionists, like Shaykh Harith ad-Dhari from the Muslim
Ulema Council, and Jawad al-Khalisi from the Founding
Conference ('mu'tamar at-ta'seesi) as well as Arab
nationalists
like Subhi Abdel Hamid would be willing to participate in
a broad meeting. He said Dhari still has a list of
objections to policies underway in Iraq ("You know them," he
stated.) Dhari has agreed not to insist on preconditions for
the Ulema Council's participation. Musa was certain that
these heretofore rejectionists would join in the December
national elections if they received the right encouragement.


4. (C) Charge said the Arab League initiative would be
useful if it encouraged all Iraqis to participate in the
next elections. He cautioned that the conference was not the
place for Dhari to try to negotiate the withdrawal of
Coalition forces; the Iraqi Government should be responsible
for those discussions. Charge urged Musa to stay on the
theme he had used at the October 21 iftar: the "old Iraq"
is gone and the "new Iraq" would stay and merited
support. The Arab League initiative must be clearly
understood not to be aiming for the return of a Sunni Arab
clique to power; rather it should be about Sunni Arabs
having a share of power by participating in the political
process. Charge also urged Musa to open an Arab League
office, and Musa said he would do so.

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FOREIGN MINISTER WANTS IRAQI POLITICIANS ONLY
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5. (C) Separately, Foreign Minister Zebari told Charge that
Musa's meetings had the right tone. He said he was
recommending that the Arab League not invite Iraqi
Government officials per se. Instead since these meetings
were intended to cement an accord among political forces,
he told Musa to invite the political groups in the Iraqi
National Assembly, and groups from outside the Assembly.
Zebari said he was also discouraging Musa from the idea of
inviting foreign observers from neighboring states, the UN
and the Coalition. Zebari speculated that the larger
conference would take place in January around the same
time as the new government is formed.


6. (C) Musa asked Charge about the Mehlis report which he
had not seen. Charge said the report's contents were
very serious and pledged to get Musa a copy while he was
still in Baghdad.

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Comment
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7. (C) At the iftar hosted by the MFA October 21 we still
heard suspicions about Musa and his mission. A Kurdish
politician and cabinet member muttered sourly that he
didn't trust Musa who, he claimed, had always been too
close to Saddam. A staffer with Shia Islamist Abdel Mehdi
noted that Musa's post-meal speech called for a
"united, free and prosperous" Iraq without mentioning the
word "democratic." This staffer noted that at least Musa
had taken the point that many Iraqi political groups in
power don't believe in national reconciliation. They will
not sit with Baathists and terrorists. Musa has found that
the term "accord" sells better in Baghdad. Musa on October
22 will be in Najaf trying to sell his conference idea to
Ayatollah Sistani and Muqtada as-Sadr before heading to
Kurdistan later in the day.
Satterfield