SENEGAL REACTS TO URGENT DEMARCHE ON LEBANON

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAKAR 001897 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR IO/UNP, NEA, AF, AF/RSA AND AF/W PARIS FOR POL - D'ELIA E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/07/2016 TAGS: PREL PTER MOPS UN LE IS SG SUBJECT: SENEGAL REACTS TO URGENT DEMARCHE ON LEBANON SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION, SHARPLY CRITICIZING ISRAEL REF: A. STATE 128442 ¶B. NEW YORK 01505 ¶C. DAKAR 01878 Classified By: DCM Robert P. Jackson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Since the Ambassador and Minister of Commerce Mamadou Diop Decroix were chairing a follow-up to the Fifth African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) Forum, DCM delivered Ref A demarche to Acting Foreign Minister Claude Absa Diallo on August 8. Ambassador Diallo repeated Senegal's call for an immediate ceasefire. She was pleased to learn that the United States and France are reviewing the August 5 text (Ref B). Diallo said the GOS is under enormous pressure to close the Israeli Embassy in Dakar. She criticized Israel in the strongest terms we have heard for 1) killing many innocent Lebanese; 2) destroying Lebanon's infrastructure, 3) severely underestimating Hizballah's strength, 4) walking into a trap by overreacting to the capture of Israeli soldiers, and 5) making Gaza and the West Bank into ghettos &like the Warsaw ghetto8 and thus driving desperate Palestinians to terrorism. ¶2. (C) On August 4, Ambassador Diallo had called the DCM and the Israeli Charge to inform them that the offensive displays on Dakar,s main square (Ref C) had been removed. Ambassador Diallo apologized and said that while the demonstration that had erected the temporary memorial had been authorized by the Government, the content of the memorial had not been. Senegalese media reported that Walid Ezzedine was responsible for the display and that he was questioned by police after following orders to remove it. JACOBS