KRG OPENS NEW REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN BAGHDAD

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003989

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/24/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS IZ
SUBJECT: KRG OPENS NEW REPRESENTATIVE OFFICE IN BAGHDAD

Classified By: Political Counselor Margaret Scobey for
reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: Dilshad Miran, the head of the newly
established Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)
Representation Office in Baghdad, met with PolCouns October
10 to discuss the origins and planned agenda of his new
office and its relation with the federal ministries,
Peshmerga integration, and Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechrivan
Barzani's upcoming visit to Baghdad. End Summary.

-------------- --------------
New KRG Office To Improve Relations With Federal Government
-------------- --------------


2. (C) Miran explained PM Maliki and KRG President Barzani
reached the decision to create a formal KRG representation
office in Baghdad during Maliki's previous visit to
Kurdistan. Miran, who has resided in Baghdad for some time,
emphasized his new office has great support from the Prime
Minister and will not act as an embassy, but as a way to
strengthen the KRG's ties with the central government.
Currently, most federal ministries are not active in
Kurdistan because the KRG has their own ministries. Miran
stressed the need for the KRG to encourage better dialogue
with federal ministries such as Health and Education because
he believes these ministries were not ministering adequately
to Kurdish-majority areas outside of KRG control. To
accomplish this, Miran hopes to eventually have a KRG office
in every federal ministry to represent Kurdish interests. He
currently has about twenty-five workers, and expects he will
need one hundred KRG representatives assigned to his Baghdad
office to accomplish this goal. He expects it will be
difficult to lure Kurds from Kurdistan to work in Baghdad and
he may have to hire locally. Miran added that as a KRG
minister, he has direct access to President Barzani. ( NOTE:
It is unclear if Miran's new office has KRG Ministry status.
END NOTE)

--------------
Peshmerga Still Needed as Security Worsening
--------------


3. (C) On the issue of the Peshmerga, Miran said that the
force's mission had to be decided before an agreement could
be reached on force numbers and training requirements. Miran
opined that the current number of Peshmerga - 120,000 active
duty forces and over 70,000 reservists, - will need to be
maintained for the near-term to make up for the inadequate
federal border forces and provide regional security for the
KRG. Miran noted the current Shia-Sunni conflict had been
simmering long before 2003 and he and PolCouns agreed all
sides in Iraq are focused on looking to the past, i.e.,
preventing history from repeating itself, but forward-looking
leadership is needed. Miran noted President Barzani has
tried to reach out to both sides, and to Sunni Arabs in
particular, because Baghdad insecurity still greatly affects
Kurdistan.

--------------
KRG PM Coming to Town
--------------


4. (C) According to Miran, KRG PM Nechirvan Barzani planned
to visit Baghdad in mid October and Miran expected he would
raise the issues of oil, electricity and the budget with
Ambassador Khalilzad (NOTE: Nechiran's visit Baghdad has been
postponed due frequent travel by other Iraqi leaders. END
NOTE). Miran noted Minister of Oil Sharistani's emphasis on
short term contracts with foreign investors would hurt the
KRG's emphasis on encouraging large foreign investment with
long-term contracts. He hopes the Council of Representatives
(CoR) recent approval of the investment law will allow more
private investment in power stations and elevate the
difficulties of importing electricity from abroad. On the
GOI budget, Miran complained there is no transparency in the
process and the Kurds received only 8-9 percent of the 2006
expected revenue rather than their promised 17 percent.
KHALILZAD