AZERBAIJAN AND THE OIC

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAKU 001289 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/01/2016 TAGS: MOPS PREL PGOV PHUM AJ IZ SUBJECT: AZERBAIJAN AND THE OIC REF: A. STATE 123845 ¶B. BAKU 994 Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CDA JASON P. HYLAND FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AN D (D) ¶1. (C) Poloff delivered REF A points to Vugar Gurbanov and Mahur Gasimov of the of International Security Division of the Azerbaijani MFA on August 28. Gurbanov called Poloff on August 29 to follow up, and said that the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) proposal to open an office in Baghdad was first raised at the December 2005 OIC conference in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. Gurbanov said that the issue had not resurfaced since that time in the Azerbaijani MFA and it was not raised at the June 2006 OIC Foreign Ministers conference held in Baku. Gurbanov said that Azerbaijan has no plans to re-raise the issue and that it is not considered an urgent issue. ¶2. (C) COMMENT: The fact that working level officials in the MFA were not aware of FM Mammadyarov's proposal for the OIC to "lend support" to the Government of Iraq (GOI) (REF B) is not surprising. Mammadyarov was traveling in the first half of this week; Ambassador will discuss the issue with him during the week of September 4. END COMMENT. HYLAND