LEBANON: COUSSERAN READOUT: FRANCE REVISED ITS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIRUT 000872 SIPDIS SIPDIS NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/MARCHESE/HARDING E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2017 TAGS: KDEM PREL PGOV LE SY SUBJECT: LEBANON: COUSSERAN READOUT: FRANCE REVISED ITS INITIATIVE PLAN DURING VISIT Classified By: Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, per 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (C) The reactions to the French initiative that Lebanese interlocutors gave envoy Jean-Claude Cousseron during his visit to Lebanon caused the French to modify their original plan for participation, French Embassy charge Joseph Silva told DCM on June 14. Interlocutors from both political camps told Cousseron the meeting that France will host in Paris June 29-July 1 would have no success unless political participation was limited to groups that were part of the 2006 National Dialogue. Also, there were several objections to the original French proposal for civil society participation. Accordingly, Silva said, the French modified their original plans. While the organization of the meeting in Paris is still in flux, it seems certain that the political representation will be "number twos" from the National Dialogue participating organizations and five civil society members there as personal invitees of French FM Kuchner. The civil society reps will be: - Kamal Mohamma,a Shia and friend of FM Kouchner; - Ziad Baroud, Christian, a constitutional lawyer; - Nawaf Salam, a Sunni who is Lebanon's Ambassador-designate to the UN and a professor at the American University of Beirut; and two Lebanese living in Paris: - Ghassan Salameh, a former Minister of Culture; and - Joseph Mayla, a political scientist. ¶2. (C) The objective of the meeting will be very modest: Silva said the theme for discussion will be something like "How to Rebuild the Lebanese State". There will be no formal agenda and no final statement. ¶3. (C) PM Fouad Siniora had expressed to Cousseran some caution about the initiative but agreed to send a representative to Paris (probably his aide Mohammad Chatah, Silva said). Siniora specified to Cousseron some requirements for PM participation: that there be no decisions or final statment from the meeting; that FM Kouchner participate in some way and that France issue a statement before the meeting that it has not changed its policy of support toward the legitimate government of Lebanon. ¶4. (C) Silva (protect) said the French Embassy is concerned about the possibility that the event in Paris will be seen as a failure, embarrassing the French government, and also that the meeting will create an artificial milestone that will become the focus of attention for several weeks, raising expectations in Lebanon. Despite that, Silva said, there is a need to do something since "everything is blocked" in the political process. ¶5. (C) Comment. Silva said that Cousseran intended to travel to Damascus and Tehran, as well as Casablanca, to brief on the initiative. He canceled those plans after the June 13 bombing in Beirut that killed MP Walid Eido. Since the bombing, many embassy contacts from March 14 have told us they no longer intend to participate in the Paris meeting. In the end, we doubt that March 14 contacts will dare say no. We note that March 14 contacts believe that they had some influence on Cousseran's decision to cancel his Damascus stop after MP Eido's murder: several of them called French Ambassador Emie (currently in France) to tell him that, if Cousseran went to Damascus, then none of them would send representatives to the French conference, dooming it. Since Cousseran did drop Damascus from his itinerary (perhaps simply to save his boss's initiative),Emie will be able to suggest some obligation on March 14 leaders to attend the dialogue conference. There is no doubt that, whatever form it ultimately takes, the conference will be portrayed by the pro-Syrians in Lebanon as evidence that U.S.-French cooperation on Lebanon has broken down. Thus, we suggest finding opportunities to publicly reaffirm our partnership with France. End comment. FELTMAN