AMBASSADOR AND VP ABDEL MEHDI DISCUSS VIOLENCE IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 001702

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/22/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS ECON IR IZ
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR AND VP ABDEL MEHDI DISCUSS VIOLENCE IN
SOUTH

Classified By: Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) In a May 21 meeting, Vice President Adel Abdel Mehdi
expressed his deep appreciation to the Ambassador for the
assistance given by the USG to ISCI leader Abdelaziz
al-Hakim. He thanked the USG for its quick facilitation of
all steps leading to the diagnosis and treatment of al-Hakim,
including his appointment at the Combat Support Hospital
(CSH) and transportation to and from MD Anderson in Texas.
"We are very, very grateful for all that you have done."

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DeBaathification Reform and the Hydrocarbon Law
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2. (C) Abdel Mehdi told the Ambassador he had submitted a
revised draft deBaathification reform law to Prime Minister
Maliki and Vice President Tarik al-Hashemi for their
consideration. (Note: One of Abdel Mehdi's staff members
confirmed on the margins of this meeting that Abdel Mehdi
worked by himself on the deBaathification revisions, not
engaging his staff. End note.) Turning to the hydrocarbon
law, the Ambassador told Abdel Mehdi that he was pressing KRG
Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani to come to an agreement on
revenue sharing provisions. The U.S., the Ambassador
continued, had developed a proposal to bridge the KRG and GOI
proposals. Abdel Mehdi said he doubted that a "bridge" would
work because it would be too complicated: "You can't have
two commissions and four required signatures." He argued
that the budget process and the Ministry of Finance should
play a larger role in revenue sharing and warned that the
governorates did not have the capacity to play a more
independent role.

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Concerns About Security in the South
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3. (C) The Ambassador told Abdel Mehdi he was very concerned
about the security situation in the south, particularly after
announcement of an apparent deal between the Diwaniya and
Provincial Council (PC) with Jaysh al-Mahdi (JAM) that called
for banning coalition forces, and perhaps even the Iraqi
Army, from entering the city of Diwaniya. Abdel Mehdi agreed
that the deal appeared very dangerous. He said that ISCI had
discussed it earlier in the day and that he would follow up
with a call to the governor of Diwaniya. The Ambassador
emphasized that that it was critical to reverse this deal,
because if it stood it would be a signal to JAM that they
stood to gain from a sustained campaign of violence. He
suggested that JAM would likely not be increasing the level
of violence across multiple provinces in the south unless
Iran was somehow involved. Noting that Iran supported both
SCIRI/Badr and JAM and that these two groups sometimes
attacked each other, the Ambassador said he was perplexed
about Iran's motives. Abdel Mehdi said he had expressed the
same concern recently to the Iranian Ambassador, who had
denied supporting JAM. The Ambassador reiterated the
importance of keeping the pressure on JAM.
CROCKER