GCC COUNTRIES IMPRESSED WITH ABHA CULTURE AND COMMERCE FESTIVAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L JEDDAH 000012 SIPDIS SIPDIS NEA/ARP FOR BOB JACHIM AND SANJAY RAMESH E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2018 TAGS: PREL SCUL SOCIO SA SUBJECT: GCC COUNTRIES IMPRESSED WITH ABHA CULTURE AND COMMERCE FESTIVAL Classified By: Consul General Tatiana C. Gfoeller for Reasons 1.4 (b) a nd (d). ¶1. (C) The CG visited the Yemeni Consulate General on December 31 to offer condolences for the death of Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hussein Al Ahmar, the speaker of Yemen's parliament. During the visit, the Yemeni CG, Ambassador Mohammed Al Qutaish, said that he had read much about the American Culture and Commerce Festival organized by ConGen Jeddah in Abha in November (septel). Ambassador Al Qutaish said that the Consuls General for the various GCC countries in Jeddah had taken note and were impressed that the USG carried out a project of this scale outside of the Kingdom's three largest cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dhahran. The Gulf CG's had spoken with many Jeddawis who had traveled to Abha for the festival, and had also met Asir locals who were both touched and proud that their province was receiving such attention from the USG. ¶2. (C) Ambassador Al Qutaish said that he is now planning a similar project in conjunction with the other Gulf CG's, who all feel "a little bit ashamed that we have neglected to share our diverse cultural traditions with our brother Muslims, the Saudis, while Americans have done it." However, he complained that Yemen's proximity to the Kingdom produces a high caseload of immigration and labor issues that prevents him from devoting sufficient time to cultural outreach projects. He further stated that there are approximately 500,000 Yemeni guest workers in the Western Province of Saudi Arabia alone and that he is "responsible" for all of them. Thus, paradoxically, Yemen is less able to engage its neighbor through cultural diplomacy than is the geographically remote USG. (Note: he did not discuss directly the reason for his GCC colleagues' lack of cultural involvement throughout the Western Province but implied that they would have more time and money to devote to such projects than the Yemeni Consulate General. End Note.) ¶3. (C) Nonetheless, Ambassador Al Qutaish noted that, like ConGen Jeddah, Yemeni diplomats are able to make regular visits to the ten major cities in the Western Region: Tabuk, Yanbu, Medina, Taif, Al Baha, Abha, Jizan, Najran, and Farasan, as well as Mecca. Al Qutaish concluded with an only slightly veiled reference to the fact that much of the southern Western Province is actually "Yemeni in character and culture" since it was conquered from Yemen by Saudi Arabia. "For myself, I am going to concentrate on telling Yemen's cultural story to northerners, like people in Tabuk. The people in the South share our culture already." GFOELLER