Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07ALGIERS1140
2007-08-13 08:17:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Algiers
Cable title:  

AHMADINEJAD VISITS ALGIERS

Tags:  PREL PTER OPEC ENRG ETRD KISL KNNP IR AG 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO8499
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDIR RUEHKUK
DE RUEHAS #1140/01 2250817
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 130817Z AUG 07
FM AMEMBASSY ALGIERS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4229
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001140 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2017
TAGS: PREL PTER OPEC ENRG ETRD KISL KNNP IR AG
SUBJECT: AHMADINEJAD VISITS ALGIERS

ALGIERS 00001140 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Thomas F. Daughton;
reasons 1.4 (b),(d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ALGIERS 001140

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2017
TAGS: PREL PTER OPEC ENRG ETRD KISL KNNP IR AG
SUBJECT: AHMADINEJAD VISITS ALGIERS

ALGIERS 00001140 001.2 OF 002


Classified By: Charge d'Affaires, a.i. Thomas F. Daughton;
reasons 1.4 (b),(d)


1. (U) SUMMARY: Iranian president Mahmud Ahmadinejad's
August 6-7 visit to Algiers generated significant noise, but
apparently little of substance. The press, responding to a
pre-visit public relations effort by the Iranian embassy
here, obligingly described the Ahmadinejad visit as part the
"rapid evolution in the process of the normalization of
relations" between Algeria and Iran, which split in the 1990s
over Iran's support for Islamic extremists in Algeria. Key
issues reported from the visit included Iran's nuclear
program, international terrorism and economic relations. By
the end of the visit, Algeria and Iran had signed four minor
bilateral cooperation agreements on housing, legal, cultural
and aviation issues. The foreign ministry declined to meet
with us to discuss the visit. End Summary.

THE NUCLEAR ISSUE
--------------


2. (U) Ahmadinejad's visited Algiers for about 36 hours
August 6-7 in what was described as a return visit for
President Bouteflika's 2003 trip to Tehran. Although the
Iranian embassy here tried to play down the issue, Iran's
nuclear program dominated print media coverage, with most
papers describing in detail the country's difficulties with
the international community on the issue. Ahmadinejad told
the press that Iran would continue to pursue peaceful nuclear
technology and thanked Algeria for its "steady support."
According to one European diplomat, in a luncheon speech the
Iranian also departed from his prepared text and said that
Iran was ready to help Algeria develop its own nuclear
potential. For his part, Bouteflika used the visit to
restate Algeria's position that a peaceful nuclear technology
program is a right for signatories of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty, calling anything else
"inadmissible".

INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

--------------


3. (U) In an August 6 press conference, Ahmadinejad described
international terrorism as a "negative phenomenon." He
added, however, that "certain states" had distanced
themselves from "human and spiritual values" and were
participating in and promoting international terrorism for
their own interests. He also implied that terrorism might be
justified as the sole means of countering American and
Zionist aggression in Iraq. Ahmedinejad took pains to praise
Algeria for maintaining its relations with Iran in the face
of the isolation efforts of the "Great Satan" (a term that at
least one reporter suggested he used ironically). The local
reporters pounded Ahmadinejad on Iran's decision to withdraw
recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic after a
visit by the Moroccan king to Iran in 2006. He responded
with general language about Iran's desire to see the Western
Sahara conflict resolved through dialogue.

ECONOMIC RELATIONS
--------------


4. (U) Algeria and Iran have an economic relationship
described by at least one newspaper as "modest," with
bilateral trade between the two countries last year totaling
only $7 million, according to the Iranian ambassador in
Algiers. Several newspapers wrote of Iran's desire to
improve the economic relationship, noted Ahmadinejad's
support for a cartel of gas-producing countries, and
highlighted Iranian interest in the Algerian market,
particularly the automobile and banking sectors. Ahmadinejad
also spoke publicly of Iran's eagerness to work in Iran with
the Algerian oil parastatal Sonatrach. Nonetheless, little
of real economic substance appears to have emerged from the
visit. According to the papers, Algeria and Iran signed four
documents as a result of the visit: an "executive program"
for 2007-09 for cooperation between the respective ministries
of housing; a proces-verbal ratifying a cultural cooperation
agreement signed in 2002; another proces-verbal bringing into
force a criminal justice cooperation agreement signed in
2003; and an agreement on "aerial services." Separately,
Iran Khodro Industrial Group signed an agreement with the
Algerian government to study opening a truck assembly factory
in Algeria. Khodro's subsidiary, SAPCO, talked to the
Algerians about opening a spare parts factory. No
announcement about the establishment of air links between
here and Tehran was forthcoming, despite suggestions prior to
the visit that flights might soon start.

BOUTEFLIKA CAREFUL
--------------


ALGIERS 00001140 002.2 OF 002



5. (U) At the formal lunch given August 7 in Ahmadinejad's
honor, President Bouteflika gave a speech in which he
highlighted advances in Iran's science and technology
programs, spoke of Algeria's positive investment climate and
called on Iran to help Algeria in its attempts to assist the
Palestinian and Lebanese people. Bouteflika added that the
fight against terrorism should include a strategy to combat
misery and the ever-growing inequality that it bred.

THE MEDIA, TOO
--------------


6. (U) Editorial coverage of the visit varied slightly in
content but was mostly cautious. The French-language daily
Liberte wrote that Algeria had taken a realist view of its
relationship with Iran, reminding readers that Iran, like
Sudan, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, had attempted to export its
version of Islam to Algeria. L'Expression continued that
theme, highlighting the differences between conservative Iran
and (by comparison) free-spirited Algeria. In contrast, an
editorial in the small French-language daily La Nouvelle
Republique titled "Iran is not a threat" maintained that
Iran's nuclear program would "rebalance the power
relationship by rendering the Israeli nuclear threat in the
region inoperative" and said that UK and U.S. interests were
served by maintaining ethnic divisions in the Middle East.

COMMENT
--------------


7. (C) It was not lost on the Algerian public that
Ahmadinejad was using the visit as part of his larger effort
to cultivate moderate Muslim friends in order to end his
country's international isolation. Nonetheless, most
Algerians do not seem to have forgotten Iran's public support
for Islamic extremists here in the 1990s, and enthusiasm for
Ahmadinejad's twice-postponed visit was limited.
Bouteflika's creaky non-aligned foreign policy means the
welcome mat is more or less permanently out for the likes of
Ahmadinejad, but the sense of welcome has its limits. The
Algerians were open to economic overtures from Iran, but
showed little interest in reciprocating. We also have the
impression that the visit may have been curtailed: the
Iranian ambassador, the foreign ministry and the press all
spoke ahead of time about an August 6-8 visit, but in the end
Ahmadinejad left the evening of August 7. Since the foreign
ministry is refusing to talk to us about the visit, however,
we're having difficulty verifying that.
DAUGHTON