SOMALIA: EGYPT CAUTIOUS ON ANTI-PIRACY EFFORTS,

UNCLAS CAIRO 000859 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ELA, AF/E (GAREY) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL EAID PGOV EG SO SUBJECT: SOMALIA: EGYPT CAUTIOUS ON ANTI-PIRACY EFFORTS, ICG DEMARCHE DELIVERED REF: SECSTATE 41385 Sensitive but unclassified, not for Internet distribution. ¶1. (U) Per reftel demarche, we notified Arab League African Affairs Department Director Samir Hosni on April 22 that the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General (SRSG) plans to chair the International Contact Group (ICG) on Somalia after the next ICG meeting in Oslo, with the discretion to include new participants or determine the composition of any new subgroups. We delivered the same message to Egyptian MFA cabinet advisor for African Affairs Ahmed Abu Zeid on April 24; neither had a substantive response. ¶2. (SBU) Abu Zeid raised Egyptian concerns over two separate efforts to improve international efforts to combat piracy off the Somali coast, one in the UN Security Council (UNSC) in New York and the second in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) in London. The GOE views this piracy as an important issue to address, he said, but warned that "we have to be cautious" not to limit the sovereignty of countries in the region over their waters. As "most of the piracy is in the Indian Ocean," the GOE wants to see international anti-piracy efforts confined to the Indian Ocean, and not address the Red Sea, he added. SCOBEY