GOJ RENEWS URGENT REQUEST FOR USG STATEMENT OF

UNCLAS AMMAN 001159 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS FOR NEA/ELA AND L E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL IZ JO SUBJECT: GOJ RENEWS URGENT REQUEST FOR USG STATEMENT OF INTEREST IN CHALABI CASE REF: AMMAN 814 AND PREVIOUS ¶1. (SBU) On April 14 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs transmitted to Post a diplomatic note again urging expeditious USG intervention in the Chalabi case. Text of note follows (PDF of Arabic original sent via email to NEA/ELA). ¶2. (SBU) BEGIN TEXT: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan presents its compliments to the Embassy of the United States of America and in reference to Diplomatic Note no. WM/USA/A/650, dated March 12, 2008, the Ministry is honored to reiterate to the Embassy its request that the U.S. Department of State positively and urgently consider providing a Statement of Interest to the competent U.S. appellate court regarding the suit that Ahmad Chalabi has brought against the Government of Jordan. The Ministry would like to stress the importance of this request to the Government of Jordan, especially given that the Government of Jordan's lawyer has presented the required appeal-stage preparatory briefing on April 9, 2008, in acordance with the timetable set by the competent U.S. appellate court. We note that the possibility for submitting a statement of interest will expire at the beginning of next week. The Ministry would be very grateful if the Embassy relayed this urgent and important request to the U.S. Department of State and urged positive consideration of it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan avails of this opportunity to renew to the esteemed Embassy of the United States of America the assurances of its highest consideration. END TEXT. HALE