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