BILDT AND IRAQ

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 STOCKHOLM 001049

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

BAGHDAD FOR RIES AND TUELLER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/27/2017
TAGS: PREL OVIP ASEC PGOV IZ SW
SUBJECT: BILDT AND IRAQ

REF: A. STOCKHOLM 1038 AND PREVIOUS

B. PARIS 3534

Classified By: Ambassador Wood, reason 1.4 (b) and (d).

Summary
--------------

1. (s) Foreign Minister Bildt plans to visit Iraq September
1-2. Bildt is scheduled to meet with PM Maliki, President
Talabani, Vice-President Hashemi, FM Zebari, and UN Rep Qazi,
as well as Ambassador Crocker. As a preface to Bildt's
August 28 DVC with Embassy Baghdad, we provide background and
suggested goals. We suggest raising with him greater EU
diplomatic support and economic assistance, to include
Swedish technical personnel support. End Summary.

Background on Bildt and Iraq
--------------

2. (u) Bildt is on record as supporting the necessity of
regime change in Iraq, including in a January 28, 2003,
signed article in the International Herald Tribune. As
recently as July 15, 2007, he said in a leading Swedish daily
paper, Swenska Dagbladet, "when all is said and done I
believe that things would have been worse in Iraq today had
Saddam still been in power." Bildt wrote in his blog August
24, 2007, that he had been discussing with French Foreign
Minister Bernard Kouchner (following Kouchner's visit to
Iraq, ref B) "the significance of an increased role for the
UN in the country and the region." Bildt also said in his
blog that the EU cannot ignore Iraq and the surrounding area.


3. (s) Bildt's remarks in favor of intervention in Iraq and
his pre-Iraq war association with Bruce Jackson's
pro-intervention Committee for the Liberation of Iraq (CLI)
have been highly controversial here. When the CLI connection
was made public, former Prime Minister Goran Persson
criticized Bildt. Domestically, Bildt is pushing the
envelope by traveling to Iraq. We expect that he will call
for greater UN and EU roles. He and Minister Billstrom will
also address the issue of Iraqi immigration to Sweden.
Sweden receives over half of all Iraqis who end up in EU
countries, taking in over 7,000 in 2006, and on track for
over 20,000 in 2007. With a total estimated population of
70,000-120,000 Iraqis resident in Sweden, Sweden's role in
the future of Iraq is also a domestic issue. Sweden now
provides assistance to NGOs working in Kurdish areas and to
democratization programs elsewhere in Iraq.

Bildt's Delegation and Itinerary
--------------

4. (s) Bildt will be accompanied for the August 28 DVC by
MFA Political Director Bjorn Lyrvall and by MFA Director for
the Middle East and North Africa Peter Tejler (who will not
travel to Iraq).


5. (s) For the visit to Baghdad, Bildt will by joined by
Immigration Minister Tobias Billstrom, Lyrvall, Bildt's
assistant Diana Janse, Sweden's Ambassador to Iraq (resident
in Jordan) Niclas Trouve, plus one additional staffer and
three security officers (total of nine persons). Knowledge
of the visit to Iraq is very closely held in the GOS. The
Swedes have furnished the following itinerary (as of August
27):

DRAFT PROGRAM

For H.E. Mr. Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs, and
the accompanied delegation.

Saturday 1 September
12:40 TBC Arrival at Marka Airport (?) (alt. Queen
Alia Airport)
12:40-13:30 Transport to Queen Alia International
Airport, check in
14:00 Departure by RJ 814
16:30 Arrival at Baghdad International Airport
(BIAP) by RJ 814
17:00-17:30 Transport from BIAP to International Zone
(IZ)
17:30-18:30 Meeting with H.E. Mr. Nouri al-Maliki, Prime
Minister of the Republic of Iraq
18:30-19:00 Transport to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
19:00-20:00 Meeting with H.E. Mr. Hoshyar Zebari, Minister of
Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq
20:00-21:30 Dinner hosted by H.E. Mr. Hoshyar Zebari
21:30 Departure for IZ
Accommodation at Control Risks-Group (CRG)
Compound


STOCKHOLM 00001049 002 OF 002



Sunday 2 September
08:00-09:00 Breakfast. Host: H.E. Mr. Ryan Crocker,
Ambassador of the U.S.
Mr. Matthew Tueller, Political Counselor,
U.S. Embassy
H.E. Mr. Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign
Affairs
H.E. Mr. Niclas Trouv, Ambassador of
Sweden to Iraq
(confirmed -- arranged by the Embassy of
Sweden in Amman)
09:00-09:30 Transport to the Presidential Palace
09:30-10:15 Meeting with H.E. Mr. Jalal Talabani, President
of the Republic of Iraq
10:15-10:30 Transport to meeting (Venue TBD)
10:30-11:30 Meeting H.E. Tariq al-Hashemi, Vice-President of
the Republic of Iraq
11:30-12:00 Transport to IZ
12:00-13:30 Lunch. Host: Mr. Ashraf Qazi, UNSRSG (confirmed
-- venue TBD -- arranged by the Embassy of Sweden in Amman)
13:30-14:00 Transport to venue TBD
14:00-14:45 Press conference with H.E. Mr. Hoshyar Zebari,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq
Special request: Meeting with the press in connection
with the departure, not earlier for security reasons, venue
TBD.
15:00-17:30 Transport to BIAP and check in
Departure by RJ 815 to Amman

Follow-up to a Bildt Visit
--------------

6. (s) Bildt's visit to Iraq is significant for Sweden and
has potential to influence the EU's role in Iraq. We do not
know if there was a planned connection between Bildt and
Kouchner's visits, but their sequencing creates a dynamic
that can be beneficial, particularly in the run-up to the
UNGA in late September. We suggest the Secretary invite a
group of interested EU foreign ministers to meet on Iraq on
the margins of the UNGA. In the longer perspective, Sweden
has already begun planning for the EU presidency in the
second half of 2009. We should urge Bildt now to push for
greater EU involvement in Iraq, both in terms of assistance
and diplomatic support. This should include Swedish experts
in EU assistance programs and the opening of an EU diplomatic
mission in Iraq.

Bio
---

7. (c) Bildt, 58, was Prime Minister of Sweden from
1991-1994. He was prominent in Balkan roles from 1995, first
as Co-Chair of the Dayton Peace Conference, later as High
Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and subsequently as
UNSGY Special Envoy for the Balkans. Bildt blogs daily on
policy issues, sometimes to the consternation of the MFA
bureaucracy. He has been repeatedly bruited by local pundits
and the media as a candidate for the joint EU/EC foreign
policy high representative post that would, under the EU's
proposed reforms, consolidate the Solana and Ferrero-Waldner
roles.
WOOD