SAUDI ARABIA- NEXT STEPS ON CRITICAL

S E C R E T RIYADH 001692 SIPDIS WHITE HOUSE FOR OVP, CENTCOM FOR POLAD, NAVCENT AND J5, DOE FOR KKOLEVAR AND WBRYAN, DEPARTMENT FOR P SMULL, NEA GCRETZ, S/CT AND NEA/ARP E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/13/2018 TAGS: AG ECON ENRG EPET IR IZ MARR MCAP MOPS OVP PGOV, PK, PREL, PTER, SA, SY, YM SUBJECT: SAUDI ARABIA- NEXT STEPS ON CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE PROTECTION REF: A. RIYADH 1408 ¶B. RIYADH 1509 ¶C. RIYADH 1648 Classified By: Charge' d'Affaires David Rundell for reasons 1.4 (B) and (D) 1.(S) On Nov. 9, Riyadh DCM and Joint Commission for Critical Infrastructure and Border Security Protection (JCCIP) Coordinator David Rundell, DE A/S Kevin Kolevar and CENTCOM J5 MG Robert Allardice met with MOI staff, including Major General Saud al-Semari, to follow up on the issue of critical infrastructure protection. Specifically, on the development of the Facilities Security Force (FSF) and Industrial Security (Reftel A). As a precursor to the JCCIP meeting scheduled for mid-December to be co-chaired by U/S Wm. Burns, P, and Asst. Minister for National Security Affairs Prince Mohammed bin Naif (MBN),it was agreed: - USG would assist MOI in drafting the Letter of Request (LOR) for training the FSF, with a tentative date of Dec 2-3 for a USG-MOI workshop to work the details for this LOR as the next step in setting up the Office of the Program Manager-FSF (OPM-FSF) - DOE would provide future assessment scope paper for follow-on vulnerability assessments (Reftel B) - CENTCOM would work with Defense Security and Cooperation Agency to have ready the Letter of Acceptance and Offer (LOA) in time for the JCCIP meeting (Reftel C) ¶2. (S) The Saudis recommended the JCCIP meeting be held on Dec. 17, 2008 in order to give then enough time to prepare after the Eid-al-Adha holiday (Dec 5-14). We agreed to pass this request on to the Department. A/S Kolevar also passed a formal letter of invitation from DOE to MOI for vulnerability assessment training. ¶3. (S) Comment: The Saudis remain heavily committed to partnering with us to protect their critical infrastructure. We have noted before MOI's limited capacity in this project despite their sense of urgency. Nonetheless, progress is being achieved and the upcoming JCCIP meeting should allow several deliverables, as listed above, to be achieved. Of note was a cautionary Saudi comment that the price of contractors, not just U.S. nationality, will be a factor in the selection process of companies to work critical infrastructure protection. END COMMENT. MUENCH