PRT ERBIL: KRG PESHMERGA MINISTER OBJECTS TO

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 004246

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/14/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ
SUBJECT: PRT ERBIL: KRG PESHMERGA MINISTER OBJECTS TO
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS

REF: A. BAGHDAD 3980


B. BAGHDAD 4059

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


1. (C) This is a PRT Erbil cable. Omer Othman (known as
Za'im Ali),the Kurdistan Regional
Government's Minister of Peshmerga (KDP-Kurdistan Democratic
Party) met Erbil IPAO to clarify
Peshmerga and party views on Kurdish-U.S. relations, the PKK,
negotiations with
Baghdad, and freedom of the press. Following meetings
between KRG and central
Iraqi government ministers, MNF-I, and US and UK diplomats,
several media outlets
carried a story from an unidentified Kurdish source stating
that the strongest Kurdish
demands had been accepted. This cable addresses Peshmerga
views on internal KRG
relations, press freedom, and media control.


2. (SBU) When asked his views on media reports that U.S. and
U.K. ambassadors
agreed "the 'Peshmerga' forces will undertake to protect
Iraq's Kurdistan region" in Al
Hayah, Al Hurrah, Radio Sawa, and other media, Za'im Ali said
he was very angry
about the story. He agreed that it impedes progress on
negotiations between the KRG
and Baghdad on issues of Peshmerga and New Iraqi Army (NIA)
roles. He said he
received numerous calls from the media asking for his comment
and he denied the
story in each case. Za'im Ali, clearly unsettled by media
pressure, asked what he
should say, and decided to state that discussions are still
ongoing and no agreements
have been reached.


3. (SBU) Za'im Ali, his deputy Anwar Othman, and General
Sherwan
all held the view that the KRG government should pressure the
media to declare the
source. They said they could shut down the papers or take
them to court for printing
this story. IPAO Erbil commented that freedom of the press
is not always
comfortable, but that in a democracy the media have the legal
right to print stories and
protect sources. Za'im Ali and his colleagues, after further
discussion, said that
democracy has limits, which include embarrassing the
government, and this story was
abusing the government's rights and therefore could not be
allowed.


4. (SBU) Asked who might have planted the story, Za'im Ali
rejected the possibility
that it was in-house. He commented that Jabar Yawar, deputy
to the KRG "Minister
of Region for Peshmerga Affairs" Shaikh Jaafar, had made
inappropriate comments
before the Khanzad meeting. He asserted that Jabar and
Shaikh Jaafar do not have the
right to make statements. Asked what the motivation for the
story might have been,
Za'im Ali said "they are trying to back me into a corner."
(COMMENT: Za'im Ali
was openly perturbed by this issue, and the virulence of his
condemnation of the
media seemed to be fueled more by his suspicions of the
source and the political
manipulation it implied than real frustration with the story
itself which simply
reflected views he himself had expressed at the meeting. END
COMMENT)

Speckhard