ARAB LEAGUE'S KHARTOUM SUMMIT

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 002021

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM PTER EAID KPAL MEPN EG SU
SUBJECT: ARAB LEAGUE'S KHARTOUM SUMMIT

REF: A. KHARTOUM 791 (NOTAL)

B. CAIRO 1911

Classified by ECPO Counselor John Desrocher for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d).


1. (SBU) Summary. Sudan played host March 28-29 to the 18th
regular summit of Arab League (AL) leaders, a meeting notable
for poor attendance by heads of state and deep divisions over
Iraq, Lebanon, and Hamas. AL leaders approved dozens of
resolutions, covering the range of priorities for all 22 AL
member states. Sudan, after assuming the AL's rotating
presidency for the coming year, gained support for its call
to extend the African Union's Darfur mission past October 1,
to require GOS approval for any UN troop role in Darfur, and
in seeking Arab funding and troop provision for AMIS when its
mission mandate expires in September. On Palestine, leaders
reiterated the AL's Beirut peace initiative, and sought ways
to bolster Abu Mazen's leadership and entice Hamas toward the
peace process.


2. (SBU) Summary, continued. On Iraq, the AL approved an
envoy and a budget for a new Baghdad office expected to open
in April. Leaders welcomed Jordan's proposal to host a
planning session for an AL-organized reconciliation
conference inside Iraq later this year, as well as an
expected gathering of Iraqi religious figures. Tensions were
high between Lebanese President Lahoud and Prime Minister
Siniora, each seeking support for their respective camps.
The AL's final statement adhered closely to Syrian positions,
particularly on the topic of Shebaa Farms. A resolution
approved by the leaders identified for the first time "Kafr
Shobra" as land included in Lebanon's Shebaa Farms claim. AL
SYG Moussa called for Arab states to "enter the world of
peaceful uses of nuclear energy with all speed and momentum."
On Arab League and regional reform, leaders launched a new
Arab Peace and Security Council to help resolve inter-Arab
conflicts, although they shelved a proposed Arab Court of
Justice. End summary.

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18th Arab League Regular Summit Held in Khartoum
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3. (C) Sudan played host March 28-29 to the 18th regular
summit of the Arab League, and assumed the rotating
presidency for the coming year. Having stepped in last year
in Algiers when Djibouti passed up its turn to host the 2006
summit, Sudan's Omar Bashir welcomed the opportunity to press
for Arab support for his efforts to block UN troops from
entering Darfur. While the gathering passed without major
incident among the 13 leaders in attendance, many
commentators criticized the low turnout by heads of state
(Note: Only 12 leaders appeared at both the Algiers summit
(2205) and the Tunis summit (2004). End note.) With key
Arab leaders (Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, and the Emirates)
absent, one rumor circulating at the conference was that the
U.S. had pressured Arab leaders not to attend, to punish
Sudan's Bashir for his obstinance over Darfur. Still, there
was no shortage of foreign attendees, including senior
Europeans (EU Commissioner for External Affairs Benita
Ferrero-Waldner, EU Special Representative Marc Otte, the
EC's Christian Leffler, Russian Deputy FM Soltanov),Turkish
PM Erdogan, UN U/S Gambari and UN SYG Annan's Iraq Envoy
Ashraf Qazi, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Cuban envoys, and
other senior dignitaries. Similarly, a large press
contingent was on-site for the entire two-day event.

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Sudan Seeks Arab Support to Address Darfur Conflict
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4. (C) Arab leaders approved a resolution on Sudan that
pledged to extend African Union forces (AMIS) in Darfur with
Arab troops/funding after the current AU mandate expires on
September 30 (ref A). The resolution, drafted by the GOS,
affirms the necessity of GOS approval for any foreign troop
deployment to Darfur, and emphasizes the importance of
reaching a peace agreement in Abuja between Darfur rebels and
the GOS. Privately, AL senior staff shared the view that
perceived intransigence of rebel groups in Abuja would only
be overcome by additional USG pressure on them. Otherwise,
they argued, the rebels would drag out the peace talks.
Iraqi FM Zebari told us he was the only head of delegation to
challenge Bashir during the closed-door session, pressing him
not to "act like Saddam" in rejecting the UN's presence. AL
Chief of Staff Youssef told poloff April 3 that the League
understood the "UN transition is a done deal," but that
details still had to be negotiated. In any case, Arab
leaders want to see a peace deal in Abuja as early as
possible, he said.
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Palestinian Issue Source of Contention
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5. (C) During a four-hour closed door session of Heads of
Delegation plus one, much of the conversation centered on how
Arab leaders would deal with a new Palestinian government led
by Hamas. Iraqi FM Zebari shared with Charge and poloff that
the leaders affirmed their strong support to Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, and debated how best to persuade
Hamas to agree to the AL's 2002 Beirut peace initiative. The
leaders reportedly agreed to extend earlier funding
commitments to the PA to the tune of USD 55 million per month
- far less than Hamas leaders had told the media they
requested from the League. In its final resolution on the
topic, leaders repeated their peace initiative of 2002, and
criticized unilateral actions taken by Israel with regard to
the occupied territories. During a post-summit briefing in
Cairo April 3, AL Chief of Staff Hisham Youssef said the
leaders called upon the Quartet to take a more balanced
approach to the two sides, for donors to continue funding the
PA as the League would do, and criticized two French
companies involved in an infrastructure project linking West
Jerusalem to settlements in the West Bank.

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Iraq: Arabs Concerned, AL Office to Open Soon
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6. (C) FM Zebari told poloff immediately after the lengthy
closed-door leaders' session on March 28, that Iraq had
gotten "everything it wanted" with respect to the Iraq
resolution. For the first time, he said, leaders accepted
the Iraqi-drafted text without incident, although Zebari
admitted the leaders had fresh fears for the stability of the
country. He said that he had been pressed to explain news of
possible talks between the U.S. and Iran over Iraq, a
development many of the Arabs believed would harm Arab
interests. Zebari told poloff that he had assured the
delegates that any such talks would not come at the expense
of the Iraqi government, nor would the Iraqi government be
excluded from such a dialogue. He chided the Arab states, he
shared, for not playing a more serious role in helping Iraq
regain its security and stability. Despite his upbeat
assessment of the conference, Zebari caused waves when he
publicly criticized the Arabs for not doing enough to help
Iraq.


7. (SBU) Arab leaders approved a resolution authorizing the
AL to open an office in Baghdad, selected a senior diplomat
as its envoy, and budgeted USD two million dollars for the
task. Mokhtar Lamani, a Moroccan diplomat who has most
recently served as the Organization of Islamic Conferences
Ambassador in New York, will head the AL mission. Lamani
plans to travel to Iraq in late April to begin consultations
and present his credentials. He will then visit regional
capitals, including Amman to discuss a possible planning
meeting in Jordan in May to prepare for an AL-organized
national accord conference in Iraq later this year. In their
resolution on Iraq, leaders also welcomed Jordan's proposal
to host Iraqi religious leaders in Amman April 22 to promote
tolerance. Finally, the Iraq committee of Arab Ministers
plans to meet shortly to discuss all of these events.

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Syria/Lebanon: Tensions High Between Lahoud, Siniora Camps
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8. (C) Lebanese President Lahoud and Prime Minister Siniora
both participated in the summit, seeking to maximize Arab
support for their respective camp's positions on the
Lebanon-Syria issue. With tensions high between the two,
contacts reported a "heated exchange" during the closed-door
session over how the Lebanon resolution would characterize
Lebanon's "resistance" (or, "muqowema"). Iraqi FM Zebari
characterized the exchange to poloff as "childish." In the
end, the resolution ended up largely repeating previous texts
on the subject. Most leaders were reportedly content to
await results of the ongoing Lebanese national dialogue
before pressing any separate agenda. AL Chief of Staff
Youssef claimed to poloff April 3 that SYG Moussa's April 3-4
visit to Riyadh was not connected with any Arab initiative on
Syria/Lebanon, and that the League would await Lebanese
internal consensus on the key issues of disarming Hizballah
and the Presidency before it took any action.

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AL's Moussa Urges Arabs to Pursue Peaceful Nuclear Programs
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9. (SBU) During opening speeches on March 28, AL SYG Moussa
called upon Arab states to expand their efforts in the
nuclear arena. Moussa, identifying what he considered a
paucity of joint Arab action in the field of science, noted a
Sudanese proposal to increase Arab efforts to "enter the
world of peaceful uses of nuclear energy with all speed and
momentum." The Arabs, he said, "should invest in it (i.e.,
joint scientific research) at the broadest scale out of
support for the Arab scientific base and for serving society
and meeting its escalating water and energy needs." Moussa's
Chief of Staff told poloff that the AL would encourage
greater Arab expenditure on scientific efforts in
collaboration with private industry, and that a high-level
seminar on science and education would be held in the coming
months.

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Arab League and Regional Reform
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10. (U) During the summit, leaders signed a document
authorizing a new AL Peace and Security Council (PSC),which
will be comprised of five member states, the Chair of the
Council of Ministers, the two previous Council Chairs, and
the next two Council chairs. Once seven member states sign
the agreement into force, the PSC will become active.
Focused on inter-Arab conflict resolution and regional
security, the body will have a wide-ranging mandate, and will
be supplemented by new tools such as an informational data
base, an early-warning system, and a committee of wise-men to
address reconciliation and post-conflict reconstruction. The
work of the PSC is expected to be handled by the League
Secretariat in Cairo without new staffing, though further

SIPDIS
details such as when the Council will be actived have yet to
be worked out. While progress was made on a new PSC, a
separate proposal to launch a new Arab Court of Justice was
shelved for the time being, with several members apprehensive
about the responsibilities of any such body. SYG Moussa
delivered a compendium of AL member-state reports on
respective efforts in the past year to promote internal
reforms and movement toward democracy and liberalization.
The subject of education was discussed at the Summit for the
first time, with leaders deciding to appoint an expert
committee to study the topic and make recommendations at the
next summit.

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Follow-Up
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11. (C) Saudi Arabia will assume the rotating presidency at
next year's summit, but requested that the summit be held at
the League's headquarters in Cairo. This is not the first
time an AL member has elected to allow the annual gathering
to be held at the League headquarters in Cairo, but the move
raised questions about the Kingdom's motives and led to
further criticism of AL efforts to encourage Arab solidarity.
The Egyptian delegation also put forward President Mubarak's
proposal to host additional Arab leaders' meetings outside
the normal March summit framework, to address topics of
concern without all 22 member states and without the normal
parliamentary procedures and paperwork. No action is
expected to occur on the Egyptian idea until next March at
the earliest. The League still plans to hold its Arab-Arab
American conference in Houston this June.


12. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Khartoum.
RICCIARDONE