QATAR REQUESTS NATO PERSONNEL DEPART BY 4 MARCH

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USNATO 000117 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/15/2017 TAGS: MARR NATO PGOV PTER QA XF SUBJECT: QATAR REQUESTS NATO PERSONNEL DEPART BY 4 MARCH REF: USNATO 113 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Richard Olson, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) ¶1. (U) This is a request for guidance. see para. 3. 2.(C) Summary: Qatari Ambassador to Belgium al-Dosari met with NATO D/SYG Ambassador Minuto Rizzo February 22 and hand delivered a Note Verbale (see para. 6) reporting that the presence of NATO personnel at al-Udeid Airbase would be illegal after February 25, 2007. Subsequent discussions between the French contact point embassy in Doha and the NATO International Staff and various Qatari contacts have produced a one week extension of this deadline to March 4. Moreover, the Note Verbale stated that the multi-lateral agreements signed between the Government of Qatar and some states cannot be applied to personnel at al-Udeid Airbase under the umbrella of NATO or with a Third Party. (Comment: the reference to "multilateral" agreements may be a translation garble since we know of only NATO member bilateral agreements with Qatar. End Comment.) The Note Verbale also stated that the draft agreement presented by NATO officials in Doha February 2-3, bears no relation to the Defense Cooperation Agreement proposed by Qatar (reftel) and does not "correspond" to the requirements of the Government of Qatar. (Note: Allies today asked to see the NATO counter-reply to Qatar, but NATO has yet to release it. We will press the issue. End Note.) The Note Verbale stated that the Government of Qatar wished to continue negotiations and NATO staff confirmed that Qatar's main interlocutor Brigadier General Abdullah Jumad al-Hamad had agreed to a March 1-2 meeting in Brussels with NATO DASG Robert Simmons. The five NATO nations, based on instructions from their respective capitals and deliberations at 26 in the NATO Political Committee, and NATO staff following the Qatar issue are not confident that NATO can arrive at a mutually acceptable arrangement with Qatar if Doha continues to demand a security guarantee from NATO (a non-negotiable, non-starter),criminal jurisdiction over NATO personnel in Qatar and cooperation activities beyond the Allied-agreed envelope of the Istanbul Cooperation Initiative (ICI). End Summary. 3.(C) Guidance recommendation - Given the clear Qatari assertion that U.S. personnel assigned to the NATO ISAF coordination element, who are in NATO billets, are not covered by the U.S. bilateral defense cooperation agreement, consideration should be given to asking SACEUR whether those U.S. personnel should depart Qatar until their status can be resolved. 4.(C) The NAC will be briefed on the status of ISAF personnel at the CAOC on Monday February 26. The Chief of Military Committee also will provide a briefing to the NAC on Wednesday February 28. International Military Staff (IMS) warned today that closure of the ISAF cell at the CAOC will impair ISAF's mission to provide air support for ISAF troops in Afghanistan just as ISAF is ramping up its spring offensive against the Taliban. ISAF air operations capability will continue to degrade thereafter if it is combined with the CAOC, they predicted, pointing particularly to concerns about losing the ability to advocate changes in priority missions at the CAOC in time-pressed combat support situations. Nevertheless, the IMS said it is preparing an immediate fallback option of operating out of Afghanistan so that NATO will have operational options should the discussions with Qatar next week prove fruitless. 5.(C) France today also reported that its Minister of Defense had written to Qatar's Crown Prince on February 21 and France's CHOD Georg Elin had a difficult meeting with Qatar's CHOD Major General Hamad bin Ali al-Atiyeh on February 22 during a previously scheduled meeting. France reported to NATO that al-Atiyeh felt NATO had ignored Qatar's imposed deadline to resolve issues by February 25. Al-Atiyeh said NATO had not significantly changed its position since the Simmons meeting of Feb 2-3 and NATO had not seriously responded to Qatar's proposals. Al-Atiyeh agreed to extend the deadline one week until March 4 so that NATO and Qatar's principal negotiator Brigadier General Abdullah Jumad al-Hamad could have one more meeting to resolve issues. Al-Atiyeh reportedly told Elin that Qatar's bilateral agreements with France would not apply to its liaison personnel at the CAOC nor would NATO nation bilateral agreements apply to the jurisdiction of ISAF personnel USNATO 00000117 002 OF 002 assigned to the CAOC. ¶6. (C) Text of Note Verbale to NATO presented in Brussels on Feb. 22: Embassy of the State of Qatar Brussels URGENT -------------- The Embassy of the State of Qatar presents its compliments to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)- Legal Advisor- and has the honor to inform you of the decision of Qatar Armed forces regarding the presence of NATO personnel in al-Udeid Air Base. The State of Qatar considers their presence as illegal and would like to inform you that regretfully it is not possible to extend their presence after 25/02/2007. Furthermore, the multi-lateral agreements signed between the Government of State of Qatar and some friendly countries can not be applied on the personal at al-Udeid Air Base under the umbrella of NATO or with a Third Party. With reference to the last meeting held in Qatar on the 2-3/02/2007, please note that the draft agreement presented by you (attached to the legal draft) bears no relation to the Defense Cooperation Agreement and does not reply to the requirements of cooperation between the Qatari Government and the NATO. Bearing in mind that the State of Qatar wishes that the negotiations between its Government and the NATO to continue in order to reach a final formula that correspond to the draft of the Defense Cooperation Agreement. The Embassy of the State of Qatar in Brussels avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization- Legal Adviser- the assurances of its highest consideration. Brussels 21/2/2007 OLSON