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). -------------- Summary -------------- ¶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. -------------- Standing Up Council Secretariat -------------- ¶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 SIPDIS 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. -------------- Iran Poses Threat to Region -------------- ¶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 MANAMA 00000937 002 OF 002 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. -------------- Morocco A Model for NDI Programming? -------------- ¶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. -------------- Bio Data -------------- ¶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