ERITREAN OFFICIAL ON BILATERAL TIES, SOMALIA

C O N F I D E N T I A L ASMARA 000247


DEPARTMENT FOR AF/E, AF/EX, AND EEB/CIP/BA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/01/2019
TAGS: PREL ER
SUBJECT: ERITREAN OFFICIAL ON BILATERAL TIES, SOMALIA

REF: A. ASMARA 187

B. ASMARA 239

Classified By: Ambassador Ronald K. McMullen for reason 1.4(d)


1. (C) Summary: Rewinding the tape to before the August 08
Djibouti Process is the best way to mend Somalia, contends
key regime insider Yemane Ghebreab. While robustly denying
that Eritrea supports Somali jihadists, Yemane said Eritrea
favors an all-parties meeting that would form the basis of a
united Somali transitional government, including Puntland and
Somaliland. Isaias was initially uncharacteristically
enthusiastic on the Obama administration, Yemane said, but
has tired of waiting for a "gesture" that the U.S. is serious
about re-engaging with Eritrea. The reason Isaias refused to
take a call from the Secretary, Yemane proffered, was that he
hates to talk on the telephone and didn't want to "get off on
the wrong foot" with her. End Summary.


2. (C) ERITREA AND SOMALIA
--------------

Yemane Ghebreab, director of political affairs of Eritrea's
ruling (and only) party, met August 3 with the ambassador to
review bilateral relations and Somalia. Yemane religiously
reiterated Eritrea's Flat Denial (Ref A) of support for
Somali radical Islamists, maintaining that Eritrea had "not
sent one bullet to extremists." He claimed that when SRSG
Ould-Abdullah publicly stated there was no evidence of
Eritrean support for radicals, not one country or group
contradicted him and came forward with any proof. Yemane
argued that regional states and pro-TFG elements are biased
against Eritrea and were passing us a load of mis- and
disinformation. The ambassador noted that many Somali
participants (including some former clients of Eritrea),as
well as most regional governments tell us that Eritrean
support to extremists continues.

-- Yemane claimed the U.S. was again following the "failed
path of 2006," by backing one narrow Somali group. "Every
one of the warlords in your 2006 coalition is now backing the
TFG," Yemane averred. He argued that the TFG has "100 times"
more resources than the opposition, yet can't make headway
because it is unpopular and narrowly based.

-- He said Eritrea favors a big-tent conference of all Somali
groups that would yield a legitimate, united, and peaceful
transitional government representing all of Somalia,
including Somaliland and Puntland. He intimated that the
Isaias regime could probably convince Hizbul Islam to
participate. Yemane said Isaias sees constructive U.S.
involvement as crucial to solving the region's many problems;
the ambassador opined that Isaias seems more interested in
backing Sheikh Aweys' bid for power than being on better
terms with the United States.


3. (C) YEMANE TASKED WITH SPEARHEADING U.S. ENGAGEMENT
-------------- --------------

After the November U.S. elections, Isaias had high hopes that
the U.S. would re-engage with Eritrea. Yemane revealed that
Isaias personally asked him to lead efforts at re-engagement
with the United States, even though Isaias was now
disappointed in the lack of "a gesture" from the new U.S.
administration. The lack of positive response to the
POTUS-Isaias letter, the refusal of Isaias to take a call
from the Secretary, and the lack of an Eritrean visa for the
AF Assistant Secretary--these could all be seen as Isaias
regime rebuffs to the new administration, the ambassador
observed. Peace Corps, USAID, DAO, the Security Assistance
program, and a large cultural affairs program had all been
shut down by Isaias, the ambassador stated, so how about "a
gesture" from Eritrea? Yemane said we needed to keep
talking. The ambassador said that's difficult when Isaias
won't pick up the phone or allow senior administration
officials to visit.


4. (C) POTENTIAL 1844 LISTING
--------------

Regarding his inclusion on the list of the Somali Monitoring
Group's possible targets for sanctions, Yemane replied, "It
is really perplexing, but is of little concern. If I don't
have to travel so much, I can spend more time with my kids.
I would miss browsing in Borders Books with a good cup of
coffee, though."


5. (SBU) EMBASSY RESTRICTIONS
--------------

Embassy Asmara has had a stretch of several months of
relatively smooth delivery of diplomatic pouches and good
issuance rates of Eritrean visas for USG TDY visitors.
However, Post has received only one in-country travel permit
since April. When the ambassador complained vociferously
about this, Yemane seemed surprised, adding that he thought
the Eritrean government had decided to loosen or abolish the
travel permit requirement. He said he'd look into this and
expected a liberalization of diplomatic travel. The
ambassador thanked Yemane for his pivotal role in winning the
release of an arrested Amcit LES (ref B).


6. (C) THE ALGIERS ACCORDS AND ETHIOPIA
--------------

Yemane said he didn't know why the Claims Commission
(parallel to the Border Commission established by the Algiers
Accords) has been so tardy in releasing its findings about
liabilities for damages arising from the 1998-00 Border War.
He asked if the United States was going to press Ethiopia to
implement the Border Commission decision. The ambassador
said Eritrea and Ethiopia should talk directly about how to
implement the border ruling. He observed that due to
concerns about the 2010 Ethiopian elections, some people
thought that seeking a major concession from Ethiopia at this
point might be politically ill-timed. Yemane guffawed and
told an Eritrean joke; "When asked why Addis Ababa didn't
keep its word on the border ruling, a senior Ethiopian
official explained that Prime Minister Meles' grandmother was
sick and if Ethiopia was forced to give back Badme now, the
old lady might die."


7. (C) COMMENT: Yemane's amiable manner fosters the notion
that he is a reasonable "moderate" inside the Isaias regime;
some Europeans seek to work to engage and bolster this
seemingly moderate element. In fact, despite his low-key,
professorial demeanor, Yemane is a deceptively hard-line
Isaias regime true believer. Post appreciates the fact that
he remains very accessible and at times helpful to Embassy
Asmara, in stark contrast to almost every other senior regime
official. End Comment.

MCMULLEN