EX-BAGHDAD MAYOR EYEING FUTURE ROLE IN IRAQ

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 000335

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR S/I, AND NEA/I, NEA/ARPI
CENTCOM FOR POLAD AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/03/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR KPAO IZ AE
SUBJECT: EX-BAGHDAD MAYOR EYEING FUTURE ROLE IN IRAQ

REF: 04 ABU DHABI 1308

Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY AMBASSADOR MICHELE J. SISON, REASONS 1.4 (
B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary: During a February 2 meeting in Abu Dhabi,
former Baghdad Mayor Alaa al-Tamimi told Polchief that Iraq
"desperately" needs secular personalities and technocrats )-
like him -- to run the government's ministries. Al-Tamimi,
in Abu Dhabi in search of employment, recounted how he was
ousted as mayor after 16 months' service because Abdelaziz
al-Hakim, leader of the United Iraqi Alliance ruling Shiite
coalition wanted one of his own people in the job. He also
said he is not willing to associate himself with any
sectarian party, and is also careful about being seen as an
ally of former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi or the United
States. He said he cannot return to Baghdad at the present
time because he fears for his life. Earlier in the day,
al-Tamimi told U.S. CENTCOM media representatives in Dubai
that filling ministerial jobs based on quotas was
ill-advised, and complained that too much money was being
spent on security at the expense of development. End Summary.


2. (C) Former Baghdad Mayor al-Tamimi met with Polchief at an
Abu Dhabi hotel February 2. Al-Tamimi explained that he was
searching for work in Abu Dhabi, and that he had also applied
for a senior job at the World Bank. Prior to taking the
mayoral job in Baghdad in April 2004 (reftel),he was working
for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi's planning department as a civil
engineer. He was the head of the design committee at the
Iraqi Atomic Energy authority in Baghdad from 1987 to 1993,
and assistant professor at the engineering college in Baghdad
from 1993 to 1995. He was given permission to leave Iraq for
Jordan in 1996 for treatment of liver tumors. He moved to
Abu Dhabi in 1998 and did not return to Iraq until after the
war. Al-Tamimi said that his next job will need to be
sufficiently important because he wants to maintain his
status in the eyes of Iraqis who regard him as someone who
can make a difference in the future. He said he has no
immediate plans to return to Iraq because his life would be
in danger. He thanked the U.S. Air Force for flying him to
safety in Amman after he was ousted from office in summer

2005.


3. (C) Al-Tamimi, a Sunni originally from Fallujah, said he
does not want to be seen as a Sunni or as a member of a
political party. He confided that he did not even join the
Baath Party when he worked in Saddam's atomic energy
apparatus. Saddam wanted him to become cabinet minister, but
al-Tamimi refused because he wanted to go back to teaching
and research at the university, he said. Then and now,
al-Tamimi said he felt that he could make a greater
contribution to Iraq by offering his technical expertise as
an engineer. Other like-minded Iraqis are trying to convey
the same message, he added, citing "tens of Iraqis" with
secular views. (Note: He cited the names Seyyar Jameel and
Hamza Jowhari as examples. End note.) Al-Tamimi said he and
others who share his views have used newspapers and satellite
television to call on the current Iraqi leadership to invite
technocrats to take part in the future government. He said
he is consulting with friends and associates about organizing
a conference for secular-minded Iraqis.


4. (C) The former mayor said that while he was in office
trying to run Baghdad's affairs, some of the press backed by
the United Iraqi Alliance's Abdelaziz al-Hakim were running
stories denigrating him. "They claimed I had been with the
Baath Party, which was not true, and they made other
accusations," he said. When he tendered his resignation, a
senior Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) official, Barham
Saleh, approached Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a
Shiite, asking that he intervene to save al-Tamimi's job.
Al-Tamimi said Jaafari was powerless to do anything against
al-Hakim. Asked for his views about Iran's influence in
Iraq's internal politics, al-Tamimi replied that 95 percent
of Iraq's Shiites are Arabs. They believe they should have
political power since they are the largest sect in Iraq.
Al-Tamimi opined that only 5 percent of Shiite Arabs are
being influenced by Iran. He included al-Hakim in this
smaller group.


5. (C) Al-Tamimi said he continues to resist offers by
various Iraqi politicians to join their parties. He said he
does not want people to think of him as a Sunni, or a member
of a particular party, or as a friend of the United States,
all labels which he believes will prevent him from
accomplishing his mission of helping rebuild and stabilize
Iraq. While he knows that will effectively exclude him from
the political process inside Iraq for the next four years, he

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said he will use that time to build support for what he hopes
is a kind of political comeback. "We need new people," he
asserted.


6. (C) Earlier on February 2, al-Tamimi met with members of
the Abu Dhabi-based Iraqi Business Council, a group he helped
found several years ago, and U.S. CENTCOM's Dubai-based media
engagement team. They discussed how the current security
situation in Iraq was affecting investments by Iraqis and
foreigners. Al-Tamimi talked about his experience as mayor
of Baghdad. He asserted that as long as the Iraqis pursue
quotas when filling ministerial jobs and other key positions,
full-fledged development is not possible. He said that he
relayed this to many USG officials he met during his tenure.
He also complained about the scarcity of money allocated
toward development, saying most of it is spent on security.


7. (U) Iraq TV station is scheduled to air an interview with
al-Tamimi during the "Let,s Talk" program on February 6. In
that interview, he apparently tells the reporter that he made
a personal financial sacrifice to take the Baghdad mayoral
job because he believed he could make a difference for his
country.
SISON