WESTERN SAHARA: MINURSO SAYS GOM HOLDING UP CBMS

C O N F I D E N T I A L RABAT 001115

SIPDIS

NEA/MAG; GENEVA FOR RMA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/02/2009
TAGS: MO PBTS PREL
SUBJECT: WESTERN SAHARA: MINURSO SAYS GOM HOLDING UP CBMS


Classified By: Classified by A/DCM Tim Lenderking for Reasons 1.4 (b) a
nd (d)


1. (C) MINURSO Chief of Staff Philippe Elghouayel told A/DCM
May 27 that the UN was in the unusual position of having
adequate funding (thanks in part to the US contribution of
USD 700,000, A/DCM noted) to go forward with
confidence-building measures in the Western Sahara but lacked
a green light from the GOM to proceed. Elghouayel said the
GOA and the Polisario had both signed off on the action plan
for restarting the CBMs, but the Moroccans had proposed three
amendments. He said that when ex-SRSG De Soto departed
Laayoune to take up his post as UN Middle East coordinator,
he was expecting to go to Geneva for a meeting on the CBMs.
Elghouayel said the GOM canceled the meeting. No new date
has been set, and there is, in Elghouayel's view, "no
movement" on addressing the three amendments. Elghouayel
said his hunch was that the GOM had come to believe that the
CBMs offered greater advantage to the Polisario than to
Morocco and volunteered that the problem seemed to be with
the Moroccan Ministry of Interior and not the MFA.


2. (SBU) Post will follow up with the GOM to ascertain the
problem and urge resolution so the CBMs can go forward.



RILEY