IRANIAN WATER IMPORT AGREEMENT CANCELED

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUWAIT 000247 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/ARPI E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2015 TAGS: PREL EMIN ETRD KU IR KUWAIT IRAN RELATIONS SUBJECT: IRANIAN WATER IMPORT AGREEMENT CANCELED REF: A. 04 KUWAIT 3726 ¶B. 04 KUWAIT 1315 ¶C. 03 KUWAIT 5719 ¶1. (U) Kuwait English daily Arab Times reported January 16 that a Kuwaiti-Iranian MOU signed in 2003 (ref. c) to import Iranian water into Kuwait was canceled by Iranian authorities due to inaction by the Iranian Majlis and Guardian Council and Kuwait's National Assembly. ¶2. (U) Iranian Deputy Minister of Energy for water affairs Reza Ardakanian announced the cancellation on the sidelines of a conference promoting investment in water projects in Iran. Responding to the news, Kuwaiti Energy Minister Ahmed Fahad said Iran "had a natural right to cancel the project" and admitted that "Kuwait didn't start the formalities on it." ¶3. (C) Comment: The cancellation is a reflection of the unease in the Iranian-Kuwaiti bilateral relationship, despite public comments by both governments to the contrary. Although Kuwait is is desperate need of both natural gas and water (ref. b),it would prefer to source these commodities from Arab states, and in the case of the latter, build additional desalinization plants, than conclude an agreement with a potential adversary. Nonethless, the inactivity by both governments should come as no surprise. Post's Kuwaiti interlocutors have previously made it explicitly clear that these Kuwaiti-Iranian projects would "never happen" (ref. a). LEBARON