LEADING IRAQI SHI'A PARLIAMENTARIAN ON SYRIA, THE

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 000294 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/28/2017 TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS IZ SY SUBJECT: LEADING IRAQI SHI'A PARLIAMENTARIAN ON SYRIA, THE SADRISTS, COR, AND DEBAATHIFICATION Classified By: Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Ali al-Adeeb, one the leaders of the Dawa party and the deputy leader of the Shi'a coalition in the Council of Representatives (CoR),gave the Ambassador a positive readout of his recent trip to Syria as part of President Talabani's delegation. He said that Shi'a coalition negotiations with the Sadrists had reached an impasse but that the Sadrist CoR members had agreed to return after reaching an agreement with CoR Speaker Mashhadani for their proposals to receive a hearing at CoR. Al-Adeeb said that new judges would have to be appointed to hear de-Ba'athification cases but agreed with the Ambassador that 18 months was a reasonable period for sunsetting the de-Ba'athification commission. End summary. -------------- The Syria Trip -------------- ¶2. (C) Ali al-Adeeb told the Ambassador on January 22 that President Talabani's trip to Syria had come at a good time. According to al-Adeeb, the Syrian government promised to change the tone of Syrian media coverage of Iraq, for example by describing the perpetrators of violence in Iraq as "terrorists" rather than as the "resistance." He said the Syrian government promised to support Iraq's elected government as legitimate and to cooperate on investigating and apprehending Iraqis based in Syria engaged in facilitating violence in Iraq if provided with a list of names by the Iraqis. Finally, he said the Syrians agreed to push various Syria-based Iraqi groups to participate in the reconciliation process, a push they had already begun by setting up a meeting of 26 tribal sheikhs. Al-Adeeb said that the Syrians were interested in expanded economic cooperation with Iraq, particularly on a potential natural gas deal along the border. -------------- The Sadrists' Return -------------- ¶3. (C) Turning to the return of the Sadrists, Al-Adeeb said that the Shi'a coalition had engaged in lengthy negotiations with the Sadrists but had not persuaded them to return as the Sadrists demanded a schedule for withdrawal of coalition forces and others in the Shi'a coalition argued that it was more important to focus on the building of Iraqi security forces rather than setting an exact timeline for withdrawal. The Sadrist CoR members, he said, wanted to return to the CoR, and they reached an agreement with Speaker Mashhadani whereby he would allow them to submit a draft proposal that would include a timetable for withdrawal. Al-Adeeb said he did not know if the current Sadrist ministers would return, emphasizing that the Sadrists had already given Maliki a list of names as potential replacements for these ministers. -------------- CoR and DeBaathification -------------- ¶4. (C) Urged by the Ambassador to consider whether the CoR should reduce its planned recess (from January 26 through February 28) in order to address important legislation, al-Adeeb said that it would be hard to do given the CoR by-laws and constitution, and assuming that the budget was passed on or before January 25 as anticipated. He said it was possible that the Independent Higher Election Commission (IHEC) law would be passed by January 25. (Note: On January 23 the CoR voted to extend the legislative term through February 10 and passed the IHEC law. End note) Al-Adeeb noted that the hydrocarbon law had not been passed by the Council of Ministers and that it would take time to pass in the CoR once it arrived, given its importance and complexity. On de-Ba'athification, he said that a special judiciary needed to be established to hear de-Ba'athification cases as the current judiciary had "too many Ba'athist judges." He said that there were discussions about nominating judges from the ranks of experienced lawyers for this purpose. He noted that the time necessary to process de-Ba'athification cases would depend on the speed of processing and number of cases (which he estimated to be around 2000). Al-Adeeb agreed with the Ambassador that the next 18 months was a reasonable time period to sunset the de-Ba'athification commission. KHALILZAD