MALAYSIA ON IRAQ GOVERNMENT FORMATION

C O N F I D E N T I A L KUALA LUMPUR 000954 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/25/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM IZ MY SUBJECT: MALAYSIA ON IRAQ GOVERNMENT FORMATION REF: STATE 81632 Classified By: Pol/C Thomas F. Daughton for reasons 1.4 b and d. (C) MFA Assistant Secretary for West Asian Affairs Zainal Azlan assured us on May 25 that the Malaysian government was "strongly supportive" of the new Iraqi political leadership. While his office was extremely busy with preparations for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) Ministerial to be held in Malaysia May 27-30, Zainal undertook to talk with his superiors and the prime minister's office about the possibility of an official statement of support and congratulations for the new Iraqi government. He noted that Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi had expressed concern over the level of sectarian violence in Iraq on May 21 at the Sharm el-Sheikh World Economic Forum, but acknowledged that an explicit statement of support had not been issued by the GOM. The Iraqi Charge here had earlier told us that the Iraqi foreign minister would not be attending the NAM Ministerial, but that the Iraqi MFA would be sending a senior ambassador to represent Baghdad. We encouraged Zainal to provide all possible support for the Iraqi representative while he attended the ministerial. On May 24, we also passed the points contained in reftel to GOM officials participating in the U.S.-Malaysia Senior Officials Dialogue in Kuala Lumpur. LAFLEUR