COPY OF LETTER SENT TO AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD FROM

UNCLAS USUN NEW YORK 001209 SIPDIS FOR S, D, P, AND SCA EMBASSY KABUL FOR AMBASSADOR WOOD E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL AF SUBJECT: COPY OF LETTER SENT TO AMBASSADOR KHALILZAD FROM GRAND CONFERENCE OF THE AFGHANS ORGANIZING COMMITTEE REF: A. CHRISTENSEN EMAIL 10/14/08 TO D P AND SCA ASSISTANTS (ZK DISCUSSION WITH AFGHAN FIRST VICE PRESIDENT - ¶B. INFORMATION ABOUT BONN II-LIKE MEETING) ¶1. (SBU) Ambassador Khalilzad received the following letter from the Grand Conference of the Afghans Organizing Committee, forwarded to him by Hekmatyar's son-in-law, Mr. Jarir. The text of the correspondence is included below. ¶2. (SBU) Begin text: Dear Excellency, Some time ago Mr. Jarir, a member of the Organizing Committee to convene a Grand Conference of the Afghans, has provided you with a concept paper. In the meantime we discussed this concept will all the concerned parties. The response was very positive. The two opposition groups, Taliban and Hikmatyar, appointed their representatives and agreed to send them to such a meeting if and when it is convened outside Afghanistan and to discuss along the principles contained in the concept paper. Other Groups also appointed their representatives and wanted to have some preparatory meetings in Kabul to discuss the concept and the Agenda of the Conference. The President had been informed in the early stages about the conference and was given a copy of the concept paper when it was available. H. E.'s response was to some extent neutral, being not against it but also having doubts about its results. Considering these positions the Organizing Committee convened two sessions of a working group comprising of the representatives of the relevant groups, some people close to Taliban and Hikmatyar (in order to have a reflex ion of the mentality of these groups) and the members of the Organizing Committee. During these meetings the Dari language of the concept paper has been modified in order to accommodate the various tastes of the participants. The only modification of substance is concerning the point dealing with the present Constitution. The beginning of point 2 is now as follows: "Support for the prevailing Constitution of the Country and trying to win the agreement of the important political groups to support The Constitution and to secure its implementation knowing that this constitution has been adopted in a special time under certain circumstances and as it is clear from its content, it can be modified in accordance with changes in the circumstances through a mechanism which is identified in it. This includes... " While all the participants are enthusiastic about convening the actual Conference the position of The President is now basically changed. H. E. condemns the meeting as being a conspiracy of Iran and ISI against the legitimacy of the Government (which is completely baseless ) and believes that the USA will also be against it. Thus H. E. forbids the convention of the Conference to the extent that no government official is allowed to take part in it and other participants will also be interrogated as conspirators. Under the circumstances we wanted to update Your Excellency and ask for support. If Your Excellency and the USA find the idea worth supporting, so we expect two things: --Through proper channels to let the Government of Afghanistan know that the USA favors the convention of the Conference. --As it is now impossible to get the financial support of the Afghan Merchants who had promised to do so, and in order to annihilate any doubt in regard of the financial resources of the Conference, we would like to ask the USA to provide financial and logistic support for the working group meetings as well as the convention of the Conference. For the preliminary steps so far we spent US$ 5.000,00 from our own resources, but we cannot afford the expenses of the next steps. Looking forward to have your positive response very soon, we remain, Yours truly, The Organising Committee End text. Khalilzad