IRAQ'S ISLAMIC PARTY NEGOTIATES WITH KURDS ON A

S E C R E T BAGHDAD 003273 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/30/2027 TAGS: PREL PGOV IZ SUBJECT: IRAQ'S ISLAMIC PARTY NEGOTIATES WITH KURDS ON A BILATERAL MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING Classified By: Political Counselor Matt Tueller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (S) Following up on a discussion with IIP Deputy Secretary General Dr. Ayad Al Samaraie (Ref A),poloff spoke SIPDIS with senior Iraqi Islamic Party (IIP) member and Parliamentarian Dr. Alaa Mekki on September 27 about the IIP's ongoing negotiations with the KDP and PUK on a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU),dealing with a wide array of issues. Mekki said the two sides have been negotiating for several months on the "strategic agreement," which consists of a list of roughly two dozen items. Progress was halted in late August due to IIP Secretary General Tariq al Hashimi's pique over Kurdish positions taken in the 5-party leadership talks that resulted in the August 26th communique. Talks have since resumed in Irbil, however, and Mekki believed progress had been made. The IIP, he said, is waiting for a Kurdish reply to the latest set of IIP proposals, which Mekki predicted would be positive. ¶2. (S) Mekki said the goal of these talks is to reach a "strategic bilateral agreement" to strengthen IIP's ties with the Kurds (the majority of whom are Sunni Muslims),broadly speaking. One of the key issues among the MOU's 24 items is dealing with political issues in Ninewa Province. Mekki said the IIP wants to improve its ties with the Kurds, in order to jointly confront terror groups and insurgents in Ninewa. Arab nationalists and terror groups in the province, he said, are targeting Kurds, their allies, and other minority groups like the Yezidis. "We want to build acceptance of the Kurds in Ninewa," he said, and battle extremism. Many Kurds have been killed there, he said, and now IIP figures and followers are being ruthlessly attacked. He added that an IIP figure in Ninewa, Khalid Othman, had been recently murdered, as had several other IIP party members and Imams in Mosul (NFI). Other issues on the joint MOU agenda include transfer of Ninewa prisoners from KRG back to Ninewa, using constitutional means to settle territorial disputes, and toning down media rhetoric and attacks. ¶3. (C) Mekki raised the issue of possible GOI tribal engagements in Ninewa Province, noting press reports that PM Maliki had approved funding for tribal figure Fawaz al Jarba to create tribal defense units with which to confront Al Qaida and other terrorist groups. Tribes in Ninewa, he said, were not strong like those in Anbar, and are not strong enough to oust AQI and other violent extremist groups. Maliki, he complained, simply wants to divide the Sunnis in Ninewa by using Jarba, a relatively ineffective Shammar tribesman with historical ties to Shia parties in Baghdad. CROCKER