NSA HADLEY MEETINGS WITH MEMBERS OF THE AFGHAN

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 005394 SIPDIS NOFORN SIPDIS ISLAMABAD FOR A/S BOUCHER DEPT FOR SA/FO DAS GASTRIGHT, S/CT, SA/A NSC FOR HADLEY, O'SULLIVAN, HARRIMAN OSD FOR KIMMETT CENTCOM FOR POLAD, CG CFA-A, CG CJTF-76 STATE PASS USAID FOR AID/ANE AND AID/CDHA/DG E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/07/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR PTER SNAR AF SUBJECT: NSA HADLEY MEETINGS WITH MEMBERS OF THE AFGHAN PARLIAMENT REF: A. KABUL 5387 ¶B. KABUL 5388 Classified By: AMBASSADOR RONALD NEUMANN FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D) ¶1. (S) On Nov 2, NSA Hadley held two meetings with Members of Parliament. The first meeting, which took place at the Embassy, included Deputy Speakers of the Wolesi Jirga (WJ),Arif Noorzai and Fouzia Koofi, WJ Second Secretary Mohammed Salij Saljoqi and WJ Secretary General Ghulam Hassan Gran. Participants SIPDIS from the Meshrano Jirga (MJ) included Deputy Speakers Hamed Gailani and Burhanullah Shinwari, Second Secretary Abdul Khaleq Husaini and MJ Secretary SIPDIS General Assadullah Falah. The second meeting took place an hour later at the Arg Palace, and included MJ Speaker Sebghatullah Mojaddedi and WJ Speaker Yunus Qanooni. ¶2. (S) The themes of both meetings were similar, with concerns expressed over government corruption and narcotics trafficking, but by far the most important issue was the parallel jirgas in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as proposed during the White House trilateral dinner in September. It was clear from the discussion that the jirga is a subject of much importance among the parliamentarians, and also that various MPs have widely divergent views. ¶3. (S) MJ Deputy Speaker Gailani (whose father, Pir Gailani, has been tapped by President Karzai to head the initial jirga commission) was predictably upbeat. He noted that MPs from both houses would be included on the Afghan team, and believed that Provincial Council members would also be included. Gailani stressed that the problems between Afghanistan and Pakistan were not just a regional Pashtun tribal issue, but affected the whole of Afghanistan. He said that at some level in the jirga process, there would also be participation by religious scholars and civil society leaders as well, although participation might be weighed in favor of people from the provinces most affected. ¶4. (S) WJ Deputy Speaker Fouzia Koofi expressed concern over the possible results of the jirga meetings, claiming that Pakistan was stronger than Afghanistan and that the Pakistani ISI would exert influence over the proceedings. She worried that the Taliban might play a role and feared that the Afghan government might surrender control of some provinces or districts to the Taliban. She also cautioned that if the proceedings took on the form of a Loya Jirga, a large national assembly, the government would then be obligated to implement its recommendations. Her concerns were supported by MJ Deputy Speaker Shinwari, who noted that the tribes on the Pakistani side of the border were under Pakistani government control and this would give the Pakistani government a large degree of control over the proceedings. Gailani answered by saying he was more optimistic and not as frightened by the Pakistani government, noting that the agenda of the jirga would be fixed in advance to deal only with security issues. He doubted that unexpected agenda issues would surface. ¶5. (S) In the second meeting with WJ Speaker Yunus Qanooni and MJ Speaker Sebghatullah Mojaddedis at the Arg Palace, the jirga issue was also the principal theme. MJ Speaker Mojaddedi said that the jirga would "be similar to, but not exactly a Loya Jirga", speculating that there might be as many as 170 to 200 participants in attendance, including religious and KABUL 00005394 002 OF 002 tribal leaders. NSA Hadley cautioned that it was essential not to lose control of the jirga, since if it too much resembled a Loya Jirga, the government might be forced to abide by any recommendations that were made. He reminded Mojadeddi that the Afghan government consisted of the Parliament, the Supreme Court and the Presidency, and mixing government and non-government roles would not be wise. ¶6. (S) WJ Speaker Qanooni was concerned that President Karzai had not yet established clear goals for the jirga, and said clarification of the goals was essential before the mechanism to achieve them could be decided. He also believed that the bigger the meetings were, the more difficult it would be to control them, suggesting it might be better to have a lower level tribal meeting first, followed by a smaller meeting. But even these should not occur until the objectives of the jirga were clarified. He feared that the Pakistani agenda might include legitimizing the Taliban, separating part of Afghanistan from central government control, or giving a role in the Afghan government to the Taliban. Qanooni claimed that a military solution to the Taliban problem was still possible, since they were not very strong. MJ Speaker Mojaddedi responded that while he agreed with some of Qanooni's points, the goal of the jirga was to bring peace to Afghanistan and that a purely military solution was not the solution for this problem. The reconciliation process to bring former Taliban back into the Afghan government fold (Note: Mojaddedi is also the head of the Peace and Reconciliation Commission) was important as well. Mojaddedi did not think that two sessions were necessary, and repeated that he favored mixing tribal and religious figures into the jirga process. ¶7. (S) In both meetings, NSA Hadley reminded the MPs that he had been present at the meetings in Washington when Presidents Bush, Karzai and Musharraf had discussed the possible jirga process, and he assured them that the agreed main goal of the jirga was not to assist the Taliban, but to enlist support to fight against the Taliban threat. ¶8. (S) The issues of corruption and illegal narcotics were also themes in both meetings. NSA Hadley stressed that the more that Afghans showed they were committed to fighting government corruption and narcotics trafficking, the easier it would be to ensure continuing American and international support. He noted that in his meeting at the Afghan Supreme Court, Chief Justice Azimi was engaged in developing a comprehensive national plan to attack the poppy trade and corruption, and he urged the MPs to support this effort with appropriate legislation. The Parliamentarians' response in both meetings to this request was very positive. ¶9. (U) This cable has NSC clearance. NEUMANN