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