ENCOURAGING EGYPTIAN ATTENDANCE AT THE ARAB

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 000362 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ EG SUBJECT: ENCOURAGING EGYPTIAN ATTENDANCE AT THE ARAB PARLIAMENTARY MEETING IN ERBIL REF: SECSTATE 18226 Classified By: Minister-Counselor for Economic and Political Affairs William R. Stewart, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). (C) In a February 25 meeting with the Speaker of the People's Assembly, Ahmed Fathi Surour, the Ambassador urged that Surour attend the March 11-13 Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union meeting in Erbil, Iraq, noting that his participation would send a strong signal to both Iraq and Iran. Surour, citing the 2005 assassination of Egypt's ambassador in Baghdad, commented that "it would not be easy for me to go to Iraq." He did, however, pledge to send an Egyptian delegation to Erbil, led by either the chair of parliament's Arab Affairs Committee, Saad Selim El Gamal, or by one of the two deputy speakers of the People's Assembly, Zainab Radwan or Mustafa Abdel Aziz. RICCIARDONE