KEEPING THE PA AFLOAT - JORDAN DEMARCHE DELIVERED

C O N F I D E N T I A L AMMAN 002064 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA AND NEA/IPA:ASACHAR E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/10/2018 TAGS: KWBG KPAL PGOV PREL ECON PINR JO SUBJECT: KEEPING THE PA AFLOAT - JORDAN DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: STATE 71463 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Daniel Rubinstein for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) PolOff delivered reftel demarche on July 10 to Mohammad Al-Khalidi, Director of the Arab and Middle East Affairs Department at the Foreign Ministry. Khalidi estimated that Jordan has only disbursed roughly $1 million of the cash amount pledged to the Palestinian Authority at the Arab League summit in 2003, but said that Jordan has exceeded that amount in direct in-kind assistance - medicine and foodstuffs - that is transferred to the West Bank and Gaza Strip with some regularity. "Even if we don't pay in cash, we pay in materials," he said. Khalidi took on board the point that there are Arab States that have yet to fulfill their various financial commitments to the PA. PolOff urged that the Arab League and its members act quickly to follow through and to find additional funds given the dire budgetary situation of the PA. Biographical Note -------------- ¶2. (C) Khalidi has been in his current position since 2005. A career diplomat since 1975, he served in Greece, India, Tunisia, Jordan's UN Mission in New York, and Cairo before being appointed Ambassador to Sudan (1997-2000). From late 2000-2005 he served as Ambassador to Yemen. He has two daughters, Karima and Tala. Karima is studying in Amman (having spent one and a half years as an undergraduate at Baruch College in New York City). Tala, the eldest, graduated from Winona State University in Minnesota, and is now a graphic designer in Amman. Khalidi's son, Karim, is earning his BA at Hunter College, in New York City. Khalidi participated in a USG sponsored one-month program learning about U.S. decision making in 1994. He is comfortable trying to communicate in English, but his fluency is probably only at the 2 level. End Bio Note. Rubinstein