SALEH AT DAD: DON'T PREACH TO US, FEED US!

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANAA 001850

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/25/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KMCA KMPI YM
SUBJECT: SALEH AT DAD: DON'T PREACH TO US, FEED US!

Classified By: Ambassador Thomas C. Krajeski for Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d
).


1. (C) Summary. On June 25, NEA Deputy Assistant Secretary,
Scott Carpenter, met with President Saleh and expressed
disappointment with his comments during the opening ceremony
of the Democracy Assistance Dialogue (DAD) conference being
held in Sanaa June 25-26. Saleh, who started off by
expressing commitment to democratic reform ended his speech
with a plea to prioritizing development assistance and
regional conflicts over political reform. Saleh sought to
explain to DAS Carpenter that the speech was "political" and
should not be misperceived to contradict DAD goals. Saleh
nevertheless promised to rectify the situation and sent an
order to his FOMIN to clarify the comments immediately to DAD
conference attendees. End Summary.

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Saleh's Speech: Bread Before Politics
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2. (U) To an audience of more than 500 conferees, President
Saleh opened with a supportive message. "This is the
democracy era and we in the third world need to learn from
the more advanced nations." Veering off his written speech,
however, Saleh switched gears and demanded that the west
resolve regional problems and feed the hungry before
"lecturing on democracy."


3. (C) Saleh then implored "occupation forces" to begin
non-partisan dialogue in Iraq in order to resolve its
festering secretarian strife. "All we see from Iraq now is
violence and tragedy," he observed, "a dialogue that excludes
no one would solve 80 percent of Iraq's problems." He also
warned that the world would soon see in Somalia "another Iraq
or Afghanistan" without immediate international intervention.
Towards the end of the speech Saleh -- evidently excited by
his own rhetoric -- closed with a sarcastic plea, "teach us,
by all means, but show us how you can resolve regional
conflicts and feed the hungry before you help us build
democracy."

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DAS to Saleh: Disappointed In The Message
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4. (C) In a meeting with Saleh immediately after the speech,
DAS Carpenter noted that although he was satisfied with the
initial message, there was concern over the rest of the
speech, which left the "unhelpful" impression that the United
States had backed the conference in order to "lecture" on
democracy and that Yemen -- an original partner in the DAD --
did not really support its objectives. "We were hoping to
focus on the practical things that we can do together," he
said, "instead you left the impression that this process
could contribute nothing to advancing the goal of democracy
in the Middle East."


5. (C) In response, the mildly perplexed President clarified
that this was not his intention. Instead, he described his
speech as having the same "transparency that Americans speak
with" and noted that democracy and reform were choices of the
people from which there was no turning back, but that no
matter what progress was made, poverty and justice also
needed to be addressed. "I want for democracy to succeed,"
he reassured Carpenter, "but we must also be clear that there
is a need for Arab and non-Arab countries alike to make
democracy and reform successful. We do not want the DAD to
end up like the Socialist experiment." He continued, "In any
case, these were political remarks not meant to be about the
DAD."


6. (C) The DAS replied that Saleh's comments had been
misunderstood and as such, he hoped that Saleh would be able
to accept his frank comments and rectify the situation. "I
assure you that my remarks will not ruin the conference and
I'll ask my FM to clarify my remarks," Saleh promised.


7. (C) Comment: Saleh clearly could not resist an opportunity
to pander to his local and international audiences the day
after "acquiescing to the people's will" and accepting his
party's nomination to run for a fourth decade in power
(septel). In the end, FM Qirbi did issue a "clarification"
at the start of the first session of the conference and
explained that the reform agenda being discussed at the DAD
had the "President's full backing." It is unfortunate that
the media had already picked up on Saleh's negative comments,
leaving it to his minister, and our own spokespeople, to
engage in damage control. Conference proceedings will be
reported septel.


8. (C) This cable was cleared by DAS Carpenter.
Krajeski