(C) UK EMBASSY UPDATE ON KHADDAM TRAVEL TO UK,

C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 003482 SIPDIS NOFORN E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/22/2016 TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR UK SY FR SUBJECT: (C) UK EMBASSY UPDATE ON KHADDAM TRAVEL TO UK, RESIDENCY IN FRANCE (C-NE6-00262) REF: PARIS 2609 Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Bruce Turner, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C/NF) UK Embassy First Secretary Tom Fletcher (protect throughout) updated poloff May 19 on the planned travel of former Syrian Vice-President Abdel Halim Khaddam to the UK, which has now been postponed to the last week of May/first week of June. Fletcher reported that Khaddam had delayed his UK travel slightly to take more time to organize an opposition conference (NFI) and media meetings in the UK, and that the UK would issue him an amended visa to accommodate the new dates. ¶2. (C/NF) Fletcher reported a tense exchange he had a few weeks earlier with a senior advisor in the French Interior Ministry (MOI),who had called Fletcher to complain about delays in facilitating the return to the UK by one of Khaddam's grandsons, who was stuck in France after losing his Syrian passport, which had contained his student visa for the UK (reftel). Fletcher reported that the French Interior Ministry official told him that President Chirac had ordered Interior Minister Sarkozy to regularize immediately the status of Khaddam's 19-member family entourage in France, by issuing them long-term residency cards ("carte sejour"), without requiring them to seek refugee status. The MOI official claimed that the one grandson who had lost his passport did not want French residency and only wanted to return to the UK, which in turn was delaying the residency cards for the entire Khaddam family. Fletcher told the French MOI official that the UK was ready to issue a new visa to the Khaddam grandson, but would do so only when he was able to present a passport. The MOI official described the UK response as unacceptable, and warned that the issue could escalate to become a bilateral problem between the UK and France. For his part, Fletcher said he was instructed by the FCO to respond to the French MOI by stating categorically that the UK had no interest in supporting Khaddam, wanted nothing to do with him as an individual, and would not make exceptions to basic visa issuance requirements to facilitate his grandson's return to the UK. ¶3. (C/NF) Fletcher reported that the issue was resolved once the Khaddam grandson was able to acquire a Jordanian passport, by unknown means, which allowed the UK to reissue his student visa. The Khaddam family apparently had attempted to acquire Saudi and Lebanese passports for the grandson in question, without success. Fletcher added that as a result of the episode, Jamal Khaddam, father of the grandson/student seeking to return to the UK, had become his "new best friend" and was seeking to introduce him to the family. Fletcher commented that Jamal appeared to be the leader among Khaddam's Paris-based family entourage. ¶4. (C/NF) Comment: This highly credible report is the first we've heard of the GoF regularizing Khaddam's residency in France. It suggests that the GoF has overcome its initial reticence over Khaddam's presence in France and has settled comfortably into an arrangement by which he travels freely in and out of France and practices his very public anti-Syria opposition activity outside French territory, with the tacit backing of President Chirac. End comment. Please visit Paris' Classified Website at: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm HOFMANN