ARAB IRANIAN COMMUNITY IN KUWAIT CONCERNED ABOUT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001622

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/IR AND NEA/ARP, LONDON FOR TSOU, PARIS FOR
ZEYA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/07/2016
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL IR KU KUWAIT IRAN RELATIONS
SUBJECT: ARAB IRANIAN COMMUNITY IN KUWAIT CONCERNED ABOUT
GROWING IRANIAN PRESSURE, WELCOMES U.S. FORCES

Classified By: DCM Matt Tueller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) On May 6, Poloff met with five activists from the
Arab Iranian (Ahwazi) expatriate community in Kuwait at their
request: Adulkhaligh Delavi, Sabah Haidary, Atiya Savari,
Naji Sawaeidy, and Hosain Ahwazy, who currently lives in
London. (Comment: Poloff was in a listening mode and did not
comment on their requests for support or their suggestions
that U.S. forces would be welcomed in the Ahwaz region of
Iran. End comment.) According to Delavi, Ahwazis account
for "60-65% of the 50,000-60,000 Iranians living in Kuwait,"
the largest Ahwazi community outside Iran. Delavi said he
and other Ahwazi activists raised substantial money in Kuwait
to support Ahwazi organizations operating inside Iran with
"the full knowledge of the GOK"; he did not specify which
organizations they supported. Ahwazis in Kuwait also provide
material aid and legal assistance to families of jailed
Ahwazis in Iran, and assist in distributing information on
their persecution. Delavi admitted that some Ahwazi
organizations supported violent resistance against the
Iranian regime, but stressed that he and the other activists
did not.

Growing Iranian Pressure
--------------


2. (C) Since last year, the Iranian government has
increasingly cracked down on Ahwazi opposition groups and
their supporters, Delavi alleged. Describing the worsening
situation of Ahwazis living in Iran, Delavi said they were
forced to choose Persian names and send their children to
schools taught in Farsi, and were subject to resettlement.
According to Delavi and Ahwazy, approximately 200,000 Ahwazis
had been moved out of an area along the Iranian bank of the
Shatt Al-Arab waterway by authorities, allegedly to make room
for a planned "industrial zone." Delavi added that the GOI
was also resettling ethnic Persians among Ahwazis, apparently
in an attempt to shift the demography of the area.


3. (C) Delavi claimed Mohammed Baqer Thu Al-Qader, the
Undersecretary for Security at the Iranian Ministry of
Interior, pressured the GOK to stop Ahwazis living in Kuwait
from sending assistance to Ahwazi organizations in Iran
during his visit to Kuwait in March. Delavi and Ahwazy said
they hoped the USG would convince the GOK that the Ahwazi
community in Kuwait was not a threat. They were particularly
concerned that the memorandum of understanding signed between
Kuwait and Iran during Al-Qader's visit would lead to the
arrest and deportation of Ahwazi activists in Kuwait. They
also worried that the GOK might try to use Ahwazi activists
as a bargaining chip with the GOI, agreeing to deport them as
part of a deal with the Iranians. "We are not the bad guys.
We are on your side," they stressed.

"National Federalism" or Separate Nation?
--------------


4. (C) Delavi and Ahwazy said their ultimate goal was the
creation of a "secular, democratic, and federal" government
in Iran based on ethnic nationalities and geography. (Note:
At one point, Ahwazy corrected Poloff's reference to the
Ahwazi in Iran as a "community," saying, "No, it is the
Ahwazi nation in Iran. There is an Ahwazy community in
Kuwait." End note.) "Iran is composed of multiple nations,"
Ahwazy explained, adding that Iran's different ethnic groups
had recently joined to form the "Iranian Federal Congress
(IFC)," whose website
(www.iranfederal.org/eng/report/eng.html) lists "the
Democratic Solidarity Party of Ahwaz" as one of the seven
groups participating in the IFC.


5. (C) The Ahwazi activists were at times annoyed and
impatient with U.S. policy towards Iran. Davali questioned
whether U.S. officials were even aware Iran had ethnic
minorities. He also criticized the Voice of America (VOA)
for broadcasting only in Farsi and for not reporting on human
rights violations against Iran's ethnic minorities. Davali
added that the director of the VOA's Farsi broadcasts was
"the biggest Persian Nazi I know." Highlighting oil and gas
resources in the Ahwaz area, Ahwazy suggested U.S. forces
invading from Iraq could easily cut it off from the
government in Tehran. Davali noted that Ahwazis in Iran were
learning English to be able to welcome U.S. troops.

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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s

Visit Kuwait's Classified Website:

KUWAIT 00001622 002 OF 002


http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/
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