SENIOR MFA OFFICIAL ON ZIMBABWE AND EGYPTIAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CAIRO 001716 SIPDIS NSC FOR PASCUAL E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/06/2018 TAGS: PREL PGOV KDEM KIRF PHUM ZI EG SUBJECT: SENIOR MFA OFFICIAL ON ZIMBABWE AND EGYPTIAN DOMESTIC POLITICAL ISSUES REF: A. STATE 79617 ¶B. CAIRO 1193 ¶C. CAIRO 1679 Classified By: Ambassador Margaret Scobey, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Summary: In a July 31 meeting with Hatem Seif al Nasser, Assistant Foreign Minister for American Affairs, the Ambassador pressed the GOE to play a constructive role with Zimbabwe, to help ensure that March 29 election results are respected. A wide-ranging discussion on Egyptian internal political, sectarian, and human rights issues followed, during which Nasser assured the Ambassador that a substantive debate will occur before the planned new media broadcasting law is passed, that the government and the Coptic Church are working constructively to resolve the Abu Fanaa monastery issue, and urged the USG to "just leave the Ayman Nour issue alone, and then it will solve itself." End summary. ¶2. (C) The Ambassador, per ref A instructions, delivered talking points on Zimbabwe. Nasser replied that Egypt's approach is to support continued talks between President Mugabe and the opposition, and urge both sides to reach a mutually acceptable resolution. He noted that President Mubarak, during his July 28-30 trip to South Africa, received opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai: "This fact alone is a good sign, as there is a sitting president, Mugabe." The Ambassador pressed that there should be a transitional arrangement that respects the will of the Zimbabwean people, to which Nasser replied that Egypt wants to be helpful, but "we will not take sides .... We can offer a role that you cannot, treading the middle ground." ¶3. (C) Queried by the Ambassador as to why several Facebook activists had been detained on July 23 (ref C),Nasser professed ignorance of the issue, and promised to look into the details. The Ambassador also raised a possible new media broadcasting law, which has been mentioned in the Egyptian press recently as likely to be put before parliament in the late fall. The Ambassador urged that the new law not restrict Egypt's lively and burgeoning press. She said that the new communications technologies used by Egypt's youth and others are positive, and that Egypt's young people should be encouraged to express themselves through these "healthy" means, rather than left with only extremism as an outlet. The Ambassador stressed that rather than broadly defining illegal actions, the new law should instead very narrowly delineate banned media activities, such as pornography. Nasser assured her that there will be a "long debate on this law, and it will certainly change from its current draft." ¶4. (C) The Ambassador inquired about the latest developments in resolving the Abu Fanaa monastery dispute (ref B),in which monks at the monastery and local Muslims claim the same land as theirs. Nasser said that the GOE has been working constructively with Coptic Pope Shenouda on the issue, who is playing a "very positive role" and is helping to forestall similar problems in the future. Noting that "there have been mistakes on both sides," Nasser said that the issue is "being handled, but is not yet solved." Nasser emphasized that the issue is fundamentally a land dispute, which is normal in Egypt: "Confrontations over property happen every day here. The only reason this one got attention is because it involves Muslims and Christians." ¶5. (C) After the Ambassador queried him regarding the state of play on the "Unified Building Law for Religious Buildings," which would create uniform regulations for the construction of mosques and churches, rather than the separate procedures which currently apply, Nasser said that the law is "very much on the agenda" and is "being debated intensively internally." He termed the law, and overall Christian-Muslim relations, as "Egypt's most important challenge, because it is about who we are." ¶6. (C) In response to the Ambassador's expressing USG disappointment that former opposition party leader Ayman Nour was not released from prison in a July 23 amnesty, Nasser said that "this matter is better left alone. If you leave it alone, it will solve itself." The Ambassador parried that the USG had indeed remained quiet publicly for some time regarding Nour prior to July 23, to no apparent effect. Musing about the "regrettable" likelihood that Congress will in 2009 again place conditions on some of the ESF assistance for Egypt, Nasser said that the Egyptian internal political and human rights issues that the USG raises are "important, but are crowding out bilateral discussion of more strategic issues. They take up so much of our time and energy, and the end result is that we are distracted from talking enough CAIRO 00001716 002 OF 002 about our mutual vision for the future." The Ambassador agreed that a broader USG-GOE strategic dialogue should be re-invigorated, but stressed that a discussion of domestic Egyptian political and human rights issues would be a necessary part of that discussion. SCOBEY