(U) RC FAREWELL VISIT TO ERBIL

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000023

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR POL, POLMIL, NCT

E.O. 12958: DECL: 30 JANUARY 2016
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PREL IZ
SUBJECT: (U) RC FAREWELL VISIT TO ERBIL

REF: KIRKUK 4

CLASSIFIED BY: RBELL, PRC, PRC, DOS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)




1. (SBU) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY: On January 29, Regional
Coordinator (RC),accompanied by Deputy RC and IPAO, held
farewell meetings in Erbil with senior Kurdistan Regional
Government-Erbil (KRG-E) leaders affiliated with the Kurdistan
Democratic Party (KDP),including Karim Sinjari, the Minister of
Interior; Hoshyar Siwaily, the Deputy Minister of Humanitarian
Affairs and Cooperation; they were joined at a farewell lunch by
Shafiq Qazzaz, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Cooperation,
and Mohammed Ihsan Ahmed, Minister for Human Rights.


2. (C) Siwaily offered to assist the USG in any way with
establishing a Regional Reconstruction Team (RRT) office in
Erbil. He and Sinjari said President Talabani was pushing
KRG-Sulaymaniyah Prime Minister Omar Fattah against his will to
become Deputy PM in a unified KRG, while Kosrat Rasoul Ali was
pushing the head of the PUK office in Erbil, Arselan Baiz. END
INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY.


(SBU) SIWAILY: SAVING JOBS FIRST
--------------


3. (C) Siwaily said:

-- He would assist the USG in any way he could in establishing a
Regional Reconstruction Team (RRT) office in Erbil, including by
recommending locals to hire if we wanted.

-- The most important issue concerning unification of the two
Kurdish regional governments is what will happen to all of the
redundant personnel. One option would be simply to retitle an
existing ministry and transfer all its employees to the new
ministry.

-- The Kurdistan National Assembly (KNA) has now passed a law
establishing the new posts of KRG Vice President and Deputy
Prime Minister, in accordance with the unification agreement
(reftel). The positions of Prime Minister and his deputy will
automatically rotate between the Kurdistan Democratic Party
(KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) at the end of 2007;
same for the posts of Speaker of the Kurdistan National Assembly
and his deputy. At this point, it is not envisaged that the
ministers will rotate. It is expected that ministers will be of
the same party as their deputies.

-- The public wants greater choice of political party than just
the KDP or PUK. However, for the next four or five years it is
better for Kurdistan to be ruled by a coalition government.

-- The PUK has not made up its mind whom to nominate for the
post of deputy prime minister. Talabani wants Omar Fattah, but
Fattah does not want the job (NOTE: Going from KRG-S Prime
Minister to KRG Deputy PM would likely seem to be a demotion for
him. END NOTE.); three others are being mentioned as
candidates. This is what is holding up progress.

-- The unification agreement envisages no Ministry of
Humanitarian Aid and Cooperation, because to Baghdad this sounds
too much like a Kurdish foreign ministry. However, the unified
KRG will have a new Ministry of Extra-Regional Affairs. Siwaily
expects a post in the Council of Ministers. (COMMENT: Given his
pleasant manner and excellent English from his years in Britain,
we suspect it will involve dealing with foreigners. END
COMMENT.)

-- The Sunni Arabs are unlikely to give up their stance of
having one foot in the insurgency and one foot in the political
process because it has worked well for them so far. (Note:
Human Rights Minister Mohammed Ihsan Ahmed opined that Ayad
Allawi was playing with fire by appealing to the Sunni Arabs,
and risked losing his secular Shiite Arab base. End Note.)

-- Grand Ayatollah Sistani has lots of money, as shown by his
having offices in London, Seattle, Sydney etc. Some income is
from Iran, but much comes from the Shiite religious tax "khoms."

(C) SINJARI: WHO'S TO BE WHO
--------------


4. (C) KRG-E MOI Karim Sinjari said:

-- The PUK has four possible nominees to become Deputy PM:

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President Talabani is pushing KRG-S PM Omar Fattah (against his
will),PUK Dep SecGen Noshirwan Mustafa is backing Muhammad
Tawfiq, and Kosrat Rasoul Ali is pushing the head of the PUK
office in Erbil, Arselan Baiz. Fattah's Deputy PM Emad Ahmed is
also in the running.

-- Sinjari will be personally involved in the difficult work of
unifying the two intelligence organizations of the KRG's. A
joint committee is to be formed once the unified Prime Minister
is appointed.

-- Joint committees are to be formed to manage the merger of
each KRG-E ministry with its KRG-S counterpart, but they have
not yet been set up.

-- Although the unified KRG's ministers will continue to be
political appointees who serve at the pleasure of the Prime
Minister, deputy ministers, directors general and other senior
officials must be competent professionals. The PUK has proposed
that KDP and PUK each nominate three people for each position
and a committee composed of the ministers, Prime Minister and
Deputy Prime Minister should decide.
BELL