FM ZEBARI ON NEIGHBORS CONFERENCE, TAWAFUQ, UNAMI

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 002491

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/26/2017
TAGS: PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: FM ZEBARI ON NEIGHBORS CONFERENCE, TAWAFUQ, UNAMI

Classified By: Political Counselor Matt Tueller for reasons 1.4 (b) and
(d).


1. (S) Summary: FM Zebari will travel to Cairo on July 27 to
sound out his Arab counterparts on convening a second
Neighbors' Conference sometime in September. Zebari
suggested to Pol/C that Kuwait might be a good choice to host
a Conference Secretariat. Zebari promised to check with
participants in the Security Working Group (set to meet in
Damascus August 8-9) on allowing the USG to observe the
session. Turning to the Refugees Working Group taking place
July 26 in Amman, Zebari said that the Iraqi delegation would
indicate Iraq's willingness to sit down with UNHCR, Jordan
and Syria in order to work out a mutually agreeable mechanism
for distributing $25 million dollars that the Government of
Iraq has pledged to support Iraqi refugees in those
countries. Zebari agreed to convey USG thinking on the
modalities for U.S.-Iraqi-Iranian security talks to the
Iranians. Zebari suggested Tawafuq's threat to quit the
government was further evidence that Iraq's Sunnis fail to
play a positive political role. Zebari said the MFA would
transmit a letter to the UN requesting a renewal of UNAMI's
mandate as soon as he receives feedback from the Prime
Minister's Office and from the USG on the MFA's proposals,
but he reacted negatively to the suggestion that UNAMI's
mandate be broadened so as to allow for a possible UNAMI role
in resolving internal border disputes (e.g., Kirkuk). Zebari
asked for assistance with IZ badging issues. See paragraph 4
for action request. End summary.

Neighbors' Conference
--------------


2. (S) Pol/C used a July 26 courtesy call on FM Hoshayr
Zebari to press for a second Neighbors' Conference as soon as
possible. Zebari said it would be difficult to convene such
a follow-up conference before all three working groups were
functioning. He said the Russians were particularly
insistent on that point. Nevertheless, after rejecting the
first week of September (due to a NAM meeting in Tehran and
an Arab League Ministerial) and pushing back against a
meeting in late August ("everyone will be on vacation"),
Zebari did not rule out the possibility of a mid-September
meeting. Zebari added that he would travel to Cairo on July
27 and would use the opportunity to sound out his fellow Arab
FMs on the the prospects for a second conference. He
predicted that if Iraq's neighbors agreed to a conference in
that time frame, their preference would be to hold the
meeting in New York immediately prior to the UNGA.


3. (S) With respect to establishing a Conference Secretariat,
Zebari admitted that the MFA had not yet given much thought
as to where the Secretariat should be based, or who would pay
for its operations. Zebari suggested that Kuwait, which he
described as a neutral player, might make an appropriate host
for the Secretariat, and he did not reject Pol/C's
counter-suggestion of Turkey. Zebari said the modalities of
the Secretariat would ultimately have to be established by
the participants at the second conference.

Security Working Group
--------------


4. (C) Zebari promised to check with participants in the
conference's Border Security Working Group to explore whether
the USG would be accorded observer status at the upcoming
Working Group meeting (August 8-9 in Damascus). He cautioned
that Syria and Iran would likely object to expanding the
conference structure to encompass permanent observers in the
various working groups. Action request: Post recommends that
the Department ask EMBASSY Damascus to demarche the SARG in
order to formally request observer status for the USG at the
Border Security Working Group.

Refugees Working Group
--------------


5. (SBU) After Emboffs alerted Zebari that the meeting of the
Refugees Working Group in Amman appeared to be stuck on the
issue of a mechanism to distribute Iraqi aid, Zebari got DFM
Hammoud (leader of the Iraqi delegation) on the phone.
Hammoud informed Zebari that Jordan was asking for no less
than $1 billion dollars from Iraq to care for Iraqi refugees,
while Syria said it needed even more. Despite lingering
resistance in the government to disbursing Iraqi funds
through UNHCR, Zebari authorized Hammoud to announce that
Iraq would sit down with each host country and UNHCR to
discuss mutually agreeable mechanisms for distributing its
pledge of $25 million dollars to assist Iraqi refugees.
Iran Talks
--------------


6. (S) At Pol/C's request, Zebari agreed to convey U.S.

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thinking on the modalities for the upcoming first session of
the trilateral security sub-committee to the Iranians,
emphasizing that Ambassador Crocker would not/not lead the
U.S. side of the sub-committee talks and that the disccusions
would be limited to the agreed upon agenda of Al-Qaeda,
borders, and militias. Zebari noted that Iranian Ambassador
Qomi (who is expected to return to Iraq early next week,
presumably after receiving instructions in Tehran) was
pressing to launch the working group process with a second
meeting between himself and Ambassador Crocker; Pol/C
stressed that this was not what the parties agreed to at
their last meeting and the FM said he understood.

Tawafuq
--------------


7. (C) Turning to Tawafuq's threats to quit PM Maliki's
government, Zebari said that some of Tawafuq's demands were
reasonable, whereas others were unreasonable. He expressed
hope that the crisis with Tawafuq would play out as similar
crises had in the past, with Tawafuq backing down at the last
moment. The problem with Tawafuq, said Zebari, is that the
Sunnis became "spoiled" early on in the government formation
process because it became clear that there was an imperative
to include the Sunnis at any cost. Moreover, Zebari opined
that the Sunnis had never reconciled themselves to playing a
subordinate role in the political process. In addition, he
noted that the growing personal animosity between PM Maliki
and VP Tariq Hashimi was adding an unfortunate dynamic to the
latest confrontation.

UNAMI
--------------


8. (C) Noting that he had recently shared with the EMBASSY
and with USUN a letter containing his thoughts on how to
expand UNAMI's mandate, Zebari indicated that he would send a
formal request to the UNSC that UNAMI's mandate be extended
as soon as he has incorporated feedback from the Prime
Minister's office and the USG. Zebari reacted positively to
the U.S. suggestion that he include language that would
enable UNAMI to possibly play a role on transitional justice
(i.e., de-Baathification),but was wary of introducing any
changes to the text that would leave the door open to UNAMI
facilitating solutions to border disputes (i.e., Kirkuk). He
noted that such proposals had been strenuously resisted by
the Kurds in the past. Pol/C and Zebari discussed language
that would leave open the possibility of a UNAMI role in
solving Kirkuk by referring to general support when requested
for implementation of constitutional provisions.

Maliki to Ankara
--------------


9. (C) On the margins of the Zebari meeting, DFM Abbawi
confirmed that PM Maliki plans to visit Ankara on August 6.

Badging
--------------


10. (SBU) FM Zebari asked for the Embassy's assistance in
resolving badging issues that he said were hampering the
operations of the MFA. Zebari noted that some members of his
entourage could not get badges to enter the IZ, and that he
himself often found himself stuck at checkpoints for hours
during his multiple forays into the IZ per day.









BUTENIS