Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08ABUDHABI668
2008-06-03 03:36:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Abu Dhabi
Cable title:  

SYRIAN PRESIDENT VISITS UAE

Tags:  PREL SY AE 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9496
OO RUEHDE RUEHDIR
DE RUEHAD #0668 1550336
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 030336Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 1030
INFO RUEHDM/AMEMBASSY DAMASCUS IMMEDIATE 0909
RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000668 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2018
TAGS: PREL SY AE
SUBJECT: SYRIAN PRESIDENT VISITS UAE

Classified by Charge d'Affaires Martin Quinn, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000668

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2018
TAGS: PREL SY AE
SUBJECT: SYRIAN PRESIDENT VISITS UAE

Classified by Charge d'Affaires Martin Quinn, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) On his fourth official visit to Abu Dhabi as Syrian
President, Bashar al-Assad met UAE President Khalifa June 1 for yet
another "brotherly" discussion reportedly focused on closing Arab
ranks on regional issues and seeking expanded investments in Syria.
The visit follows within days of UAE Vice President Mohammed bin
Rashid's (MbR) unofficial visit to Damascus (where he met with Assad
on the margins of his participation in an equestrian endurance race);
MbR visited Syria in his official capacity February 18-19, 2008. UAE
President Khalifa, with Foreign Minister Abdullah (AbZ),participated
in the Arab League Summit March 29-30 in Damascus and also visited
Syria in July 2007. Assad was previously in the UAE in December 2006
and is also visiting Kuwait and Libya on this trip. His primary
meetings in Abu Dhabi involved President Khalifa (who met Assad at
the airport and hosted him for a formal luncheon) and Abu Dhabi Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Zayed (MbZ).


2. (SBU) Aside from the political engagement inherent in such a
visit, and Syria's desire to overcome political isolation, press
reports indicate a strong Syrian interest in investment. The UAE is
reportedly Syria's third-largest regional trading partner (with
mutual trade valued at over 20 billion Syrian pounds in 2006 [approx
438 million USD]),yet seeks to gain from the UAE's booming real
estate market with increased investments. Following his overnight in
Abu Dhabi on June 1, Assad visited Dubai -- as he had during his
December 2006 visit. His host in the booming marketplace of Dubai
was its business-oriented ruler MbR, who also holds the federal
titles of Vice President and Prime Minister.


3. (C) Post has little insight into the content of private
discussion with Assad. Some interlocutors interpret the visit as a
Syrian "thank you" to Gulf States who provided high level attendance
at the Damascus Summit. MbZ hosted a dinner for U.S. Secretary of
Treasury Paulson at the Emirates Palace fish restaurant on June 1,
while the Syrians were dining barely a hundred meters away at the
Emirates Palace Italian restaurant. Both Assad and Paulson received
UAE-guided tours of the Saadiyat Island (future Abu Dhabi cultural
district) exhibit -- about an hour apart. Post spent several hours
working to ensure a sufficient interval of separation between MbR's
June 2 lunch with Assad and his subsequent meeting with Paulson in
Dubai.


4. (C) Comment: In past visits we have been told that the UAE makes
it a point to deliver "firm messages" to Assad, although the press
coverage and brotherly hugs generally ensure that the upbeat optic of
each visit makes a stronger impression than whatever "firm" message
might have been mixed into the cordial dinner conversations. The UAE
is home to many Syrians and relations between the two peoples run
deep. It should not be forgotten that Bashar al-Assad and several of
his al-Nahyan hosts and contemporaries essentially grew up together
as the sons of (more or less autocratic/authoritarian) Arab leaders.
Strangers they are not. End comment.
QUINN