SUPREME COUNCIL FOR DEFENSE SECGEN REQUESTS U.S.

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAMA 000937

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARP, INR/B

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/28/2016
TAGS: PREL PINR KDEM KMPI BA REGION OFFICIALS POL
BILAT
SUBJECT: SUPREME COUNCIL FOR DEFENSE SECGEN REQUESTS U.S.
ASSISTANCE


Classified by Ambassador William T. Monroe for reasons 1.4
(b) and (d).

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Summary
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1. (C) The Ambassador called on the Secretary General for
the recently-formed Supreme Council for Defense, Shaikh Ahmed
bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, on May 28. Shaikh Ahmed said King
Hamad meets daily with the Council, which is composed of the
King, Crown Prince, Ministers of Defense, Foreign Affairs,
Interior, and Finance, and himself. Shaikh Ahmed accompanied
the CP on his March visit to Washington and said he had
requested NSC assistance in standing up the Supreme Council
Secretariat. He said Iran poses a threat to the region and

SIPDIS
that the Iranian government wanted to see an agenda for the
GCC mission addressing the nuclear program before allowing
the visit. The Ambassador briefed Shaikh Ahmed on the
results of the U.S.-Bahrain Military Coordination Committee's
meetings a few days earlier, and Shaikh Ahmed agreed with the
focus on enhancing and integrating regional air defense
systems. On NDI, Shaikh Ahmed was interested in learning
more about the mechanism under which NDI operates in Morocco.
End Summary.

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Standing Up Council Secretariat
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2. (C) Supreme Council for Defense Secretary General Shaikh
Ahmed bin Khalifa Al Khalifa opened the May 28 meeting by
welcoming the Ambassador to his office, which he noted he had
moved into just the previous week. Although his office is
currently located in the Crown Prince's Court, he said the
Council is part of the (King's) Royal Court and would move to
new offices currently under construction near the King's
palace in Sakhir as soon as he has established a structure
and assembled a team. The Council is only three months old,
and is composed of the King (chair),Crown Prince, Ministers
of Defense, Foreign Affairs, Interior, and Finance, and
himself. He said the King meets with the Council daily. (He
presumably meant members of the Council, not the entire
Council.) The focus of these sessions has been Iran and Iraq.


3. (C) Shaikh Ahmed noted he had accompanied the Crown
Prince on his March visit to Washington and attended the CP's
meetings with Vice President Cheney, Secretary Rice,
Secretary Rumsfeld, and National Security Advisor Hadley. He

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also had a separate meeting with Deputy National Security
Advisor Abrams. Shaikh Ahmed said he spoke to DNSA Abrams
and other officials about NSC assistance in standing up the
Supreme Council Secretariat. Saudi Arabia recently created
its own National Security Council, headed by Prince Bandar,
with help from consultant Raytheon. Similarly, the UAE is
working with a consultant on its NSC equivalent. Bahrain,
however, does not want a consultant but would welcome any
advice or assistance the USG can give.

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Iran Poses Threat to Region
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4. (C) Turning to regional issues, Shaikh Ahmed said Iran is
very dangerous to the region. It interferes in many
countries, especially Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, and a
possible military conflict with Iran could lead to problems
outside that country. The Ambassador stressed that the U.S.
was engaged in discussions with friends and allies about the
best way to move forward to resolve the issue in a positive
way. There would be some tough choices to make about ways to
ratchet up the pressure on the Iranian regime without harming
the Iranian people. These might include economic sanctions
and restricting contact with Iranian officials. Shaikh Ahmed
noted there was a chance that sanctions could backfire and
unite Iranians internally.


5. (C) On the GCC mission to engage Iran on the nuclear
program, Shaikh Ahmed said the Omani government had requested
a meeting but the Iranian government said it first wanted to
see an agenda for the mission. He noted that a Bahraini
government employee working in environmental affairs had an
article published in a local paper recently claiming that
Iran's nuclear program did not represent a danger to the
environment. He said the article, which was written by "the
Iranian Embassy," tried to convince Bahrainis that the

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nuclear program is not a threat to Bahrain.


6. (C) Recognizing that the joint U.S.-Bahrain Military
Coordination Committee's annual meetings had just ended a few
days earlier, Shaikh Ahmed asked about results. The
Ambassador said one of the focus issues was improving Gulf
air defense systems by equipment upgrades and regional
integration. Shaikh Ahmed commented that this was a
practical issue in light of tensions with Iran.

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Morocco A Model for NDI Programming?
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7. (C) Echoing a refrain voiced by several Bahraini
officials, Shaikh Ahmed said NDI's former project director
was "unacceptable" to the GOB. The Ambassador emphasized
that NDI's democracy programming was important and we would
like to find a way to bring NDI back to the country, noting
that it operates in Egypt, Yemen, Morocco, and several other
Arab countries. Shaikh Ahmed said it would be interesting to
learn more about the mechanism under which NDI operates in
Morocco. Bahrain might be able to look at it as a model.

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Bio Data
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8. (SBU) Shaikh Ahmed appears to be around 40 years old.
Before entering his current position, he was the Bahraini
Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates for six years, where
he knew U.S. Ambassadors Sison, Wahba, and Kattouf. Before
becoming Ambassador, he was head of the Abu Dhabi office of
the Arab Banking Corporation. He is a graduate of the
Petroleum University in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia and spent 16
months at Columbia University doing post-graduate work on a
program arranged by the Bahrain Monetary Agency.

MONROE