ISRAELIS DISTRESSED BY SENEGALESE PRESIDENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L DAKAR 000501 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/IAP AND AF/W E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/28/2010 TAGS: PREL PGOV IS SY SG SUBJECT: ISRAELIS DISTRESSED BY SENEGALESE PRESIDENT EFFORTS TO INSINUATE HIMSELF INTO PEACE PROCESS REF: DAKAR 496 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Jay T. Smith for reasons 1.5 B/D ¶1. (C) Summary: On April 29, the Israeli Ambassador to Senegal (please protect) called on Charge to express his country,s concerns about President Abdoulaye Wade,s efforts to inject himself and his country into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. He said President Wade is misrepresenting the character of conversations and correspondence he has had with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Moreover, the Government of Israel does not want Wade to play a role in the peace process, but is concerned about the damage rejecting Wade,s overtures would cause to their bilateral relationship. End summary. ¶2. (C) Israeli Ambassador Gideon Behar called on Charge to discuss President Wade,s recent efforts to act as a mediator between Israel, Hamas, and the Palestinian Authority (reftel). Behar was visibly agitated as he described Wade,s persistent importuning of President Peres to arrange a conversation or meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. According to Behar, President Wade is distorting the nature of his communications with President Peres, much to Israel,s distress. In a recent communique from the Senegalese presidency, Wade implied that Peres, along with the leadership of the Palestinian Authority and that of Hamas, had agreed to Wade taking on the role of mediator. ¶3. (C) President Wade dispatched a special presidential representative to Damascus to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Maashal and to Amman, Jordan to meet with Palesitan Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in an attempt to jump start the peace negotiations. Behar reported that Israel believes that Maashal will soon be given an invitation to come to Dakar. President Wade has asked to be allowed to go to Israel to begin mediating. The Government of Israel has informed him that he would be a welcome "honored bilateral" guest. ¶4. (C) The Israeli ambassador made clear that his government does not want any Senegalese involvement in the peace process. However, he expressed concern about the potentially negative impact that abruptly rejecting Wade,s overtures could have on bilateral relations. Behar opined that President Wade, who is scheduled to represent Africa at an upcoming meeting of Noble Peace Laureates in Petra, Jordan, is driven by a strong desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize himself. Comment -------------- ¶5. (C) President Wade sees himself as a peace mediator par excellence and is serial offender in regard to injecting himself uninvited into the mediation of international conflicts. He has offered to mediate between Iran and the United States and Syria and the United States. In October 2007, he announced that he would mediate between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and British Prime Minster Gordon Brown, ultimately flying to Harare and announcing that the solution to the conflict was for the United Kingdom and other Western countries to simply stop unfairly criticizing Mugabe,s regime and to pay for land reform. More recently, he injected himself into conflict between Chad and the Sudan. While Wade,s efforts ultimately bore some fruit in the form of a watered-down peace accord, that was only after he almost washed his hands of the entire affair after a dressing down by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, claiming (falsely) that he had never wanted the responsibility in the first place. The UN SG had to push him to finish what he had started. ¶6. (C) Wade craves being the center of attention on the international stage and sees himself as being in the same class as great African statesmen such as Julius Nyrere or Nelson Mandela and hopes to cement his legacy as a peacemaker and leader of the ummah by being the one to bring peace to the Middle-East during his country,s tenure as chair of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. However, it is clear that he does not realize that in all likelihood Hamas is simply trying to exploit him. Given that Senegal has historically sided with the Palestinians on UN General Assembly and Human Rights Commission/Council votes it is clear the Israelis would never accept an active role for Wade. Moreover, during the OIC Special Envoy,s recent meeting with him (reftel),President Wade betrayed his utter lack of appreciation for the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict blithely saying that a cease-fire would be possible if the Israelis merely agreed to eliminate all security checkpoints in the West Bank. Wade,s efforts are unlikely to contribute constructively to the Annapolis peace process and could very well undermine it. SMITH