Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06PARIS6512
2006-09-28 15:51:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Paris
Cable title:
MFA DENIES RUMORS OF RENEWED FRENCH OFFER TO TRAIN
how-tonull Lucia A Keegan 09/29/2006 10:28:40 AM From DB/Inbox: Lucia A Keegan Cable Text: C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 06512 SIPDIS cxparis: ACTION: POL INFO: PAO ODC AMB AGR DAO DCM ECON FCS STRASBOU SCI ORA UNESCO DISSEMINATION: POLOUT CHARGE: PROG APPROVED: POL/MC:JROSENBLATT DRAFTED: POL:RWALLER CLEARED: POL/D:BTURNER VZCZCFRI918 OO RUEHC RUEHXK RUEHZL RUCNDT DE RUEHFR #6512 2711551 ZNY CCCCC ZZH O 281551Z SEP 06 FM AMEMBASSY PARIS TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1798 INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0913
C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 006512
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/14/2016
TAGS: PREL IZ FR
SUBJECT: MFA DENIES RUMORS OF RENEWED FRENCH OFFER TO TRAIN
IRAQI SECURITY FORCES
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).
C O N F I D E N T I A L PARIS 006512
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/14/2016
TAGS: PREL IZ FR
SUBJECT: MFA DENIES RUMORS OF RENEWED FRENCH OFFER TO TRAIN
IRAQI SECURITY FORCES
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (C) Summary: The Iraqi ambassador to France has picked up
intimations that France may, during a visit in early November
by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, renew its offer to train
members of the Iraqi security forces -- this time perhaps in
Jordan -- a rumor strenuously denied by the MFA. End
summary.
Hints of a Breakthrough?
--------------
2. (C) The Iraqi Ambassador to Iraq, Mowafak Abboud, told
Ambassador Stapleton on September 27 that Iraqi President
Talabani will visit France the first week of November
(Talabani's visit has not yet been announced). Abboud added
that President Chirac's diplomatic advisor, Maurice
Gourdault-Montagne, told Abboud that during the visit France
might renew its long-standing offer to train up to 1,800
members of Iraq's security forces (an offer that has made
little headway since being first proposed in 2003, due to
French insistence that any training be conducted in France
rather than in Iraq or in neighboring Jordan). Intrigued,
Abboud followed up with an unidentified source in the French
Ministry of Defense, who told him that if the training were
to take place anywhere, it would take place in Jordan.
Don't Hold Your Breath, Says MFA
--------------
3. (C) "Totally impossible," Franc Gellet, the MFA's new
DAS-equivalent for Iraq, told Poloff on September 27.
Gellet, who just returned to France after a tour in Baghdad,
insisted that France's long-standing offer has been dead for
some time as a result of communalism within the Iraqi
security forces. "The problem is: Train who, and for what?"
said Gellet. Arguing that the Iraqi Interior Ministry is
permeated by militias and Shi'a death squads, Gellet stressed
that there was not the slightest possibility that France
would train a "Shi'ite police force." Adding that Talabani's
upcoming visit came at the Iraqi president's request, Gellet
said no decisions have been made yet concerning Talabani's
program. He strongly hinted that there would be no French
deliverables for the visit, which he characterized as a
chance to "exchange points of view."
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
STAPLETON
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/14/2016
TAGS: PREL IZ FR
SUBJECT: MFA DENIES RUMORS OF RENEWED FRENCH OFFER TO TRAIN
IRAQI SECURITY FORCES
Classified By: Political Minister-Counselor Josiah Rosenblatt, reasons
1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (C) Summary: The Iraqi ambassador to France has picked up
intimations that France may, during a visit in early November
by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, renew its offer to train
members of the Iraqi security forces -- this time perhaps in
Jordan -- a rumor strenuously denied by the MFA. End
summary.
Hints of a Breakthrough?
--------------
2. (C) The Iraqi Ambassador to Iraq, Mowafak Abboud, told
Ambassador Stapleton on September 27 that Iraqi President
Talabani will visit France the first week of November
(Talabani's visit has not yet been announced). Abboud added
that President Chirac's diplomatic advisor, Maurice
Gourdault-Montagne, told Abboud that during the visit France
might renew its long-standing offer to train up to 1,800
members of Iraq's security forces (an offer that has made
little headway since being first proposed in 2003, due to
French insistence that any training be conducted in France
rather than in Iraq or in neighboring Jordan). Intrigued,
Abboud followed up with an unidentified source in the French
Ministry of Defense, who told him that if the training were
to take place anywhere, it would take place in Jordan.
Don't Hold Your Breath, Says MFA
--------------
3. (C) "Totally impossible," Franc Gellet, the MFA's new
DAS-equivalent for Iraq, told Poloff on September 27.
Gellet, who just returned to France after a tour in Baghdad,
insisted that France's long-standing offer has been dead for
some time as a result of communalism within the Iraqi
security forces. "The problem is: Train who, and for what?"
said Gellet. Arguing that the Iraqi Interior Ministry is
permeated by militias and Shi'a death squads, Gellet stressed
that there was not the slightest possibility that France
would train a "Shi'ite police force." Adding that Talabani's
upcoming visit came at the Iraqi president's request, Gellet
said no decisions have been made yet concerning Talabani's
program. He strongly hinted that there would be no French
deliverables for the visit, which he characterized as a
chance to "exchange points of view."
Please visit Paris' Classified Website at:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/paris/index.c fm
STAPLETON