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