APPROACHING THE GULF STATES ON FINANCIAL PLEDGES

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000255 SIPDIS ///////CORRECTED COPY/////////////// E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/25/2016 TAGS: EAID PGOV PREL AE SUBJECT: APPROACHING THE GULF STATES ON FINANCIAL PLEDGES TO AFGHANISTAN IN LONDON REF: A. STATE 12256 ¶B. STATE 10953 ¶C. ABU DHABI 108 Classified By: DCM Martin Quinn, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) On January 25, at the UAE cabinet level, Ambassador delivered points on Afghanistan reconstruction and significant new UAE financial pledge to Minister of State for Finance and Industry Dr. Mohammed Khalfan bin Khirbash. EconChief covered similar ground on January 24 with MFA Asst U/S Mohammed Abdul Jabil. ¶2. (C) On January 25, DCM delivered reftel A points, urging a new UAE financial pledge, to MFA Asst U/S Tariq Al-Haidan who indicated that assistance for Afghanistan continues to be very important to the UAE, adding that UAE contributions since 2002 exceeded $81 million. (Our last figure was $74 million.) Al-Haidan noted that the figure of $81 million did not include UAE's considerable security assistance and other contributions, such as the gift of 200 cars. He highlighted UAEG's clear preference for dispensing assistance channeled to projects as opposed to writing checks. He said, "If they want a hospital, they get a hospital; if they want a school, they get a school from us." He said that MinState for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (who is out of the country) had not yet decided who would attend London conference, but that it might be FonMin Rashid Abdullah Al-Noaimi. Al-Haidan asked whether we had any information on how much others in the Gulf region were pledging and commented that he had not seen an agenda for the forthcoming London conference. SISON