Germany and Iraq Announce Resumption of Training for Iraqi

UNCLAS BERLIN 000977 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: MARR MASS MOPS PREL PTER NATO IZ GM SUBJECT: Germany and Iraq Announce Resumption of Training for Iraqi Military in the UAE REF: Berlin 00911 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: After a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jassim al-Obeidi in Berlin May 9, DefMin Jung announced that Germany will train 350 Iraqi soldiers from a transportation battalion in the UAE this year. The Bundeswehr also plans to train an Iraqi medical unit in Germany. As part of the training, Germany will provide the Iraqis with 120 trucks and 33 ambulances. END SUMMARY. -------------- Provisions of the Training Cooperation -------------- ¶2. (SBU) According to an MOD source, the Bundeswehr will ship 120 trucks to the UAE, and train one Iraqi transportation battalion on the equipment from October to December 2007. About 60 Bundeswehr soldiers and interpreters will be involved in training. In addition, the Bundeswehr will train Iraqi medical soldiers in Germany, and later transfer 33 ambulances to them in the UAE. Both the ambulances and the trucks will be donations for the armed forces. A total of 350 Iraqi soldiers will be trained under the agreement. -------------- Trilateral Training Outside NATO Framework -------------- ¶3. (SBU) MOD officials stress that the training is currently a trilateral arrangement between Germany, the UAE and Iraq. While it is closely coordinated with the NATO Training Mission in Iraq (NTM-I),it is not technically part of that operation. Other countries, such as Belgium have stated interest in joining Germany's UAE training program. -------------- History of Germany's Training assistance -------------- ¶4. (SBU) In 2005, Germany trained an Iraqi battalion of combat engineers (350 military personnel),but the training program was not conducted in 2006 because of problems with financing the travel of Iraqi trainees to and from the UAE. As reported reftel, those problems have apparently now been resolved. ¶5. (SBU) In addition, since 2004, the Bundeswehr has provided training for about 100 soldiers at its training facilities in Germany, including a selected number (3-4 soldiers) at its military academy in Hamburg. Most courses are of short duration (a few weeks),but the courses at the military academy are a year or longer. TIMKEN, JR