IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO KUWAIT: POSSIBLE MOVEMENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 001821

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/29/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL IZ KU
SUBJECT: IRAQI AMBASSADOR TO KUWAIT: POSSIBLE MOVEMENT

REF: BAGHDAD 1668

Classified By: Acting Political Counselor Peter Vrooman for reason 1.4
(d).

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Summary
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1. (C) Members of Parliament's Foreign Relations Committee
and other sources tell us that 20 of 65 pending ambassadorial
nominees are close to being confirmed, perhaps in the next
two weeks. That said, there continue to be conflicting
signals as to whether Kuwait will be among the first 20 posts
filled. The Chief of Staff to Committee Chairman, Humam
al-Hamoudi, told us that Muhammad Bahr al-Uloom will be
Iraq's next ambassador to Kuwait and that he will be part of
first 20 nominees who are confirmed. However, according to
MP Tanya Gilly (PUK),the ambassadorial nominees have not yet
been assigned a country. She believes that where the
nominees will be posted will be negotiated by political party
blocs once they are confirmed, leaving open the possibility
that no one is assigned to Kuwait in the first group of 20.
Regardless of whether this is true, MP Gilly has told us that
the future ambassador to Kuwait and the other 19
candidates/nominees will have to attend six months of
mandatory training at the MFA before they take up their
duties. End summary.

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Numbers and Qualifications
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2. (C) On June 25, MP Tanya Gilly, a member of Parliament's
Foreign Affairs Committee, described to Poloff the long and
arduous process of confirming Iraqi ambassadorial nominees.
Gilly confirmed what an MFA official told us last week
(reftel): that the committee had received a total of 65
official ambassadorial nominees, five of whom are career
diplomats from the MFA. The remaining 60 nominees are
political appointees who were officially nominated by the
Prime Minister, but who in reality made the list with the
input of the various political blocs in Parliament to ensure
a smooth confirmation. Gilly noted that each political
nominee had been interviewed by the MFA and received the
approval of the cabinet before the Committee began its
interviews as part of the confirmation process.


3. (C) With respect to recent news reports that several MPs
found some ambassadorial nominees not to be sufficiently
qualified, Gilly indicated that in cases in which the
Committee has not been satisfied with a nominee, it has
discreetly asked the party bloc which originally submitted
the nomination to change its nominee. Gilly said that this
had happened on two occasions and that the party bloc
willingly complied with the Committee's request for a
substitution, an indication that the Committee is exercising
its oversight function. However, Gilly also noted that a
number of MPs had raised larger concerns about ambassadorial
nominees, including whether they were dual nationals, whether
they were currently living abroad rather than in Iraq,
whether their C.V.s were accurate, and most importantly
whether they were suspected Baathists or terrorists. Gilly
said that of the 65 ambassadorial nominees, the committee had
completed interviewing 50 and that these names had been
forwarded to the de-Baathification Commission, which has
cleared 39 nominees with 11 still pending.

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An Ambassador to Kuwait in 2009?
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4. (C) When asked about the timeline for Parliamentary
confirmation of the nominees, Gilly told Poloff that rather
than wait for all 65 names to be cleared through the entire
vetting process that the Foreign Affairs Committee was
preparing the first batch of 20 for a confirmation vote.
(Note: The head of the MFA's North America Office Mohamed
Q(Note: The head of the MFA's North America Office Mohamed
Al-Hamaimidi told us on June 22 that the first group voted
out of committee would include 10 nominees (reftel). End
note.) Gilly indicated that the first group of 20 candidates
would include nominees from each of the party blocs to ensure
passage. On June 2 and 30 respectively, Ayad al-Bayati,
Chief of Staff (COS) for Speaker of Parliament Ayad
al-Sammaraie, and Ali Muhsen, the Chief of Staff (COS) to
Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Humam al-Hammudi, outlined
a similar procedure to Poloff and confirmed the fact that
bloc negotiations were more or less completed. Muhsen also
indicated to Poloff that the first 20 nominees would be
brought to a vote within the next two weeks.


5. (C) When asked whether an ambassador to Kuwait had been
designated and whether this person would be one of the first

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20 nominees confirmed, COS Muhsen told Poloff that Hussein
Bahr al-Uloom had been designated to be the next ambassador
to Kuwait. Muhsen also stated that al-Uloom would be among
the first group of 20 as a "favor" to us, given that we had
raised the issue so often. At the same time, Gilly stated to
Poloff that none of the 65 ambassadorial nominees has yet
been assigned a country. She stated that the decision as to
which country each nominee is assigned will be negotiated by
party leaders, a process that would leave open the
possibility that no one was assigned to Kuwait amongst the
first 20. (Comment: Our understanding of Iraqi procedure
based on conversations with other Committee members and GOI
officials is that ambassadorial nominees are assigned a
country before their names are submitted to Parliament. It
may simply be that Gilly, despite being a member of the
Committee, is not privy to the information for unknown
reasons. That an MP on a particular committee would not
understand the committee's work in detail unfortunately is
common in the Iraqi parliamentary context. End comment.)
When Poloff stressed to Gilly the urgency of Iraq sending an
ambassador to Kuwait soon, she noted that even when the
nominees are confirmed, they will be required to attend six
months of mandatory training and familiarization at the MFA
before they are sent to their posts of assignment.

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Comment
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6. (C) After more than a year of interviews, background
checks, and political manuevering, there appears to be a
genuine desire in the Foreign Affairs Committee to bring the
first group of ambassadorial nominees to a confirmation vote
in the Parliament at the earliest opportunity. If it is true
that Hussein Bahr al-Uloom is indeed the nominee for Kuwait
-- and we have heard his name for this position before -- and
that he is amongst the first 20 nominees confirmed, this will
be a very positive development for Iraq-Kuwait relations.
Whether this vote takes place within the next two weeks and
whether the nominees will be required to attend six months of
training at the MFA before taking up their posts remains to
be seen. We will continue to follow this opaque process and
push for the new Iraqi ambassador to Kuwait to take up his
post as soon as possible. End comment.
HILL