DEMARCHE ON COOPERATION ON COUNTER-TERRORISM

S E C R E T ASMARA 000587 E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/11/2028 TAGS: ER PREL PTER SUBJECT: DEMARCHE ON COOPERATION ON COUNTER-TERRORISM REF: STATE 124779 Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for Reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. (S) Post has not received a response to demarche (ref) requesting Eritrea's cooperation on counter-terrorism issues. ¶2. (S) At Yemane Ghebreab's request, the ambassador and A/DCM met with him at the headquarters of the Peoples Front for Democracy and Justice December 11. The ambassador stated that the demarche represented an opportunity for Eritrea to demonstrate its self-professed willingness to cooperate with the U.S. on counter-terrorism issues. Yemane said he had no response to the demarche. Yemane repeated the mantra that Eritrea would be willing to engage comprehensively with the U.S. on a range of multilateral and bilateral issues, including counter-terrorism, but that Eritrea would not respond to requests contained in the demarche in isolation. He added that it is not in Eritrea's interest for radical Islamists to come to power in Somalia. The ambassador indicated that Eritrea's non-response to the demarche would likely have serious consequences. ¶3. (S) After a pause, Yemane said, "This doesn't have anything to do with your request, but the ARS leaders in Asmara, including Sheikh Aweys, want to return to Somalia in ten days, two weeks, or perhaps a bit more. But again, this doesn't have anything to do with your request." Regarding information on the whereabouts and activities of Mukhtar Robow and Abdallah Hersi al-Turki, Yemane said, "I'm sure you know much more about these things than we do." Yemane volunteered that Robow had traveled to Saudi Arabia on hajj in 2006 before the Ethiopian intervention in Somalia, and had possibly gotten an Eritrean travel document for that trip. Yemane said that as far as he knew, Robow had been in Somalia for the past year and had not gotten a replacement for his expired Eritrean travel document. He added that ARS leader Sheikh Sharif also has an Eritrean travel document. Finally, Yemane said that President Isaias, in a recent conversation with the Norwegian Deputy Foreign Minister, had raised the importance of cooperating with the U.S. on Sudan, specifically the North-South issue, "to keep Sudan from imploding." ¶4. (S) The ambassador ended the discussion by stressing that al-Shabaab has conducted acts of terrorism, will likely carry out more such acts, and that the perpetrators and sponsors of these acts of terrorism will be held accountable. MCMULLEN