GENERAL MOSELEY'S FEBRUARY 14 MEETINGS WITH OMANI

S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 02 MUSCAT 000171

SIPDIS

NOFORN
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2018
TAGS: PREL MASS MOPS IR MU
SUBJECT: GENERAL MOSELEY'S FEBRUARY 14 MEETINGS WITH OMANI
DEFENSE OFFICIALS

Classified By: Ambassador Gary A. Grappo for Reasons 1.4 (b, d)

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) General T. Michael Moseley, United States Air Force
Chief of Staff, met separately on February 14 with Mohammed
Al-Rasbi, Under-Secretary for Defense Affairs, and with Air
Vice Marshall Yahya bin Rashid al-Juma'a, Commander Royal Air
Force of Oman (RAFO),to discuss the merits of Shared Early
Warning (SEW). General Moseley also discussed Afghanistan,
Iraq, Iran and issues related to Oman's F-16 program. End
Summary.

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BASE AND EQUIPMENT ISSUES
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2. (C) During General Moseley's visit, both al-Rasbi and AVM
Yahya stressed the value of Oman's relationship with the U.S.
Al-Rasbi, who co-chairs the U.S.-Oman Joint Military
Commission (JMC) with DoD Assistant Secretary for
International Security Affairs Mary Beth Long, expressed in
particular his pride in the long-standing U.S. Base Access
Agreement with Oman and acknowledged that the time was
approaching to begin work on renewing the Agreement.
Al-Rasbi and General Moseley discussed the progress in
construction of Oman's new al-Musanah Air Base, and agreed on
the importance of advance planning of the move to al-Musanah
of U.S. war reserve materials (WRM) currently stored at the
RAFO base at Seeb International Airport in Muscat.


3. (S/NF) Al-Rasbi and AVM Yahya both praised U.S. Air Force
(USAF) support for the Omani F-16 program. They further
thanked General Moseley for USAF help in solving an Omani
bomb fuse shortage and in working an F-16 radar anomaly.
General Moseley emphasized that the USAF is continuing to
work with contractors to address the ITT company's failure to
provide Oman's F-16s with Advanced Integrated Defensive
Electronic Warfare Suites (AIDEWS) capability.

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OEF/OIF UPDATE
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4. (C) In response to al-Rasbi's inquiry on operations in
Afghanistan, General Moseley stressed that military
development and training in Afghanistan is progressing, but
added that the U.S. continues to urge its NATO allies to meet
their troop commitments. General Moseley noted that stemming
narcotics production is a particularly difficult challenge
due to the economics of the drug trade. On Iraq, General
Moseley highlighted the volatile political sensitivities in
the north of the country attributable in part to the historic
Turkish and Kurdish influence in the area. He pointed out,
however, that Iraq's overall military and security situation
continued to improve.

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IRAN POLICY AND NUCLEAR WEAPONS
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5. (C) General Moseley emphasized that Iranian interference
in Iraq and the Palestinian territories was a major problem.
He also questioned the intent of Iran's nuclear and ballistic
missile programs. Al-Rasbi countered that the Iranians need
to be engaged through dialogue and brought into the
"international framework." Rather than "cornering" Iran, he
advised the U.S. to use its "soft power" in trying to change
Iranian behavior. Noting that Oman is a signatory to the
Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, al-Rasbi made clear that
Oman did not want to see more countries acquiring nuclear
weapons. He also mentioned Oman's trade and tourism ties
with Iran, including Omani travel to Iran for medical care,
and claimed that media reports of hardships faced by the
Iranian people -- such as fuel shortages -- caused Omanis to
generally oppose isolating Iran.

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SHARED EARLY WARNING
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6. (S/NF) Attempting to gauge Omani support for SEW, General
Moseley stressed that there are ways to address sovereignty
issues related to SEW. He further stated that system
proposals would look at potential problems related to both

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aircraft and missiles. General Moseley remarked that there
are already protocols in the GCC to address some of the
issues regarding sharing of information, such as when a
hijacked aircraft transits different airspaces. But he
acknowledged that the short missile flight time to some
countries -- which accordingly limited response time -- is a
tougher technical problem to address. The General also
mentioned that it is possible to work on concerns related to
aircraft first, and then resolve the more difficult missile
problem.


7. (S/NF) Al-Rasbi responded that he would need cues from
higher up before proceeding further. He stated that two
things make some Omani officials resistant to the SEW concept
-- sovereignty issues, and the perception that the system is
aimed at Iran. AVM Yahya, during his meeting with General
Moseley, claimed that SEW had been discussed "in the GCC,"
but that no conclusion had been reached on the subject. He
quickly added, however, that the SEW concept was "still being
kept alive" in the GCC. Like al-Rasbi, a common theme in AVM
Yahya's comments on SEW was that the system was designed
without an openly recognized threat.


8. (U) General Moseley did not have the opportunity to
review this message.
GRAPPO