TURKEY SUPPORTS USG OBJECTIVES FOR AD-HOC LIAISON

UNCLAS ANKARA 001381 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT ALSO FOR EUR/SE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAID KPAL PGOV TU IS EU WBEG SUBJECT: TURKEY SUPPORTS USG OBJECTIVES FOR AD-HOC LIAISON COMMITTEE MEETING REF: STATE 95980 ¶1. (SBU) On September 18 we delivered REFTEL objectives to Rauf Denktas at MFA's Directorate General for the Middle East. He told us that Turkey supports the U.S. objectives and that the Deputy Under Secretary for the Middle East and head of the department plan to attend the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee meeting September 22. He explained that Turkey has increased its assistance to the Palestinian Authority (PA) a great deal in the past two years, including pledging $150 million in Paris and another $50 million this March. According to Denktas, Turkish NGOs under coordination with the PM have raised an additional $50 million for the PA. Turkey would like its financial assistance to be used in specific projects so that it can better track where and how the money is being spent. Turkey sees PM Fayyad's two-year plan as completely in step with the work that it is doing with the Palestinians and Turkey also supports a timeline. ¶2. (SBU) We also delivered REFTEL points to Evren Dilekli, Department Head for International Finance at the Turkish Treasury Ministry. Dilekli said Treasury has a subsidiary role to MFA on this issue. Given the upcoming G-20 and IMF/World Bank meetings in the next two weeks, he thought it extremely unlikely that the GOT could reach an interagency position on additional assistance to the PA before the September 22 meeting. We told Dilekli that the September 22 meeting would be at a working level and that there would likely be a follow-on ministerial meeting. JEFFREY "Visit Ankara's Classified Web Site at http://www.intelink.s gov.gov/wiki/Portal:Turkey"