C O N F I D E N T I A L BASRAH 000061

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 4/26/2016
TAGS: PGOV PREL KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: FADILLAH PARTY VOWS TO HELP END THE BOYCOTT

REF: (A) BASRAH 19; (B) BASRAH 43

CLASSIFIED BY: Ken Gross, Regional Coordinator, REO Basrah,
State Department.
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d)




1. (C) The Regional Coordinator (RC) for the Basrah Regional
Embassy Office (REO), Deputy Regional Coordinator and IPAO met
with Dr. Hayder al-Wa'eli, head of the Basrah Fadillah Party and
Sheikh Khazl Jaloob Falih (Abu Salom), a prominent Fadillah
member of the Basrah Provincial Council (BPC) to discuss the
BPC's continued boycott of the British and the Danes. (See Ref
(A) for the BPC's decision to boycott and Ref (B) for more on
Abu Salom and his activities on the BPC.) Abu Salom, who the
REO had tried unsuccessfully to meet with in the past few
months, spoke of the need for the presence of the Coalition
Forces and the "unfortunate" lack of good intentions by British
authorities that caused the boycott against the United Kingdom
to continue. He stressed the need for "openness" by Coalition
Forces and the illegal detention of Basrah citizens by the UK
military. Abu Salom said the BPC's boycott against the Danes
was easier to resolve.



2. (C) Abu Salom dominated most of the conversation, but after
some minutes Dr. Hayder broke in to say that the boycott against
the Brits and the Danes could be ended "within days, if not
hours." He said that Fadillah had assumed a leadership role in
the BPC to persuade the other parties to end their recalcitrant
stance. Dr. Hayder promised that Fadillah would take "two or
three steps forward for every step the British took" to resolve
the boycott, and he evinced more certainty that the boycott
against the Danes would end soon.


3. (C) Comment: The BPC meets on the afternoon of April 26 and
should decide to end its boycott against the Danes. The Danish
Mission in Basrah has had extensive talks with Fadillah party
members, and a short explanatory letter from the Danish Foreign
Minister to the BPC will be read into the BPC record. All signs
point to a quick resolution of the two-month boycott against the
Danes. The British Consulate in Basrah is also sanguine about
the BPC ending its boycott on April 26. The Acting British
Consul General told the RC on April 25 that he expected the BPC
to vote to end the boycott during its April 26 meeting, but the
BPC may well decide to end its boycotts one at a time. In any
event, we expect both boycotts to end soon.

GROSS