TFLE01: DEMARCHE IN ADVANCE OF 8/7 ARAB LEAGUE MINISTERIAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L TRIPOLI 000394 SIPDIS STATE FOR NEA/MAG, NEA/RA - CATHERINE ELDER E.O. 12958: DECL: 8/6/2016 TAGS: PREL LE IS LY SUBJECT: TFLE01: DEMARCHE IN ADVANCE OF 8/7 ARAB LEAGUE MINISTERIAL REF: STATE 128426 CLASSIFIED BY: GREG BERRY, CDA, Embassy Tripoli, State. REASON: 1.4 (b),(d) ¶1. (SBU) Charge, accompanied by DCM, delivered reftel points verbally August 6 to General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation (MFA-equivalent) European Affairs Secretary/Qadhafi Advisor Abdelati Al-Obeidi. Obeidi has emerged as the GPCFLIC's lead official on the Lebanon crisis. ¶2. (C) Obeidi confirmed that GPCFLIC Secretary (FM-equivalent) Shalqam will be attending the August 7 Foreign Ministers meeting for Libya and that a detailed account of the U.S. presentation would be provided to him. Obeidi said Libya's goal is to give support to the Lebanese government. The Lebanese Government (including the Hizballah ministers) have agreed to a seven-point program, which the Libyan Government will support. Obeidi said the Lebanese Government is not supportive of the US-France draft UNSCR because it does not see the text as capable of stopping the destruction. ¶3. (C) While clearly implying that Libya shared Lebanon's lack of enthusiasm for the draft UNSCR, Obeidi went on to say that Libya strongly supported the Government of Lebanon and the extension of Lebanese Government control over all of the territory of Lebanon. "We don't agree with groups taking the authority of the state into their own hands," Obeidi said. ¶4. (C) Separately, on August 5 Obeidi contacted Charge to request U.S. assistance in setting up safe passage for Libyan humanitarian aid flights to Beirut International Airport. The flights were previously going into Latakia, but the aid can no longer be trans-shipped overland because of the destruction of the route. Charge explained that we are feeding the request into our Washington Task Force, but we need additional details. Obeidi assured him that the shipments are entirely humanitarian in nature, and that Libya understood that even after acting as a facilitator, the U.S. could not guarantee the safety of the shipments. BERRY