Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09BAGHDAD3362
2009-12-30 10:30:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Baghdad
Cable title:  

DPM ISSAWI ON NINEWA MEDIATION EFFORT

Tags:  PREL PGO KDEM IZ 
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VZCZCXRO7835
OO RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #3362 3641030
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 301030Z DEC 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5940
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003362 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2019
TAGS: PREL PGO KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: DPM ISSAWI ON NINEWA MEDIATION EFFORT

Classified By: A/DCM Gary A. Grappo for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAGHDAD 003362

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/29/2019
TAGS: PREL PGO KDEM IZ
SUBJECT: DPM ISSAWI ON NINEWA MEDIATION EFFORT

Classified By: A/DCM Gary A. Grappo for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) In a meeting with POL M/C and MG Lanza on December 28,
DPM Rafi al-Issawi said that for "well-known" political
reasons he strongly doubted that further progress could be
made before national elections in March to reconcile the
feuding (Sunni) al-Hadba Gathering (AHG) and (Kurdish) Ninewa
Fraternal League (NFL) members of Ninewa's Provincial
Council. (Note: The NFL won a third of the seats in the
January 2009 Provincial Council (PC) elections; however, the
AHG refused to allow NFL members to encumber any key
provincial government positions, prompting the NFL to boycott
the PC. Issawi's mediation effort focuses on ending the
boycott, but also touches on broader Arab-Kurd reconciliation
issues, security, the economy and judicial affairs. End
note.) Citing recent conversations with Arab and Kurdish
interlocutors in Ninewa, he advised against trying to end the
NFL's boycott of the Ninewa PC in the near-term. In the
run-up to elections, neither side could politically afford to
be perceived to make the compromises necessary to end the
impasse. Privately, Issawi said the parties were "cautiously
optimistic" that reconciliation could occur, but after the
election.


2. (C) Responding to the POL M/C's question on whether
engagement by the Ambassador's Senior Advisor for Northern
Iraq (SANI) or PRT Ninewa before the election could help end
the boycott, Issawi advised that the U.S. instead focus more
generally on engaging the parties, building trust and
explaining the joint security architecture. He noted that he
and MNF-I Odierno would travel to Mosul on December 30 to
brief Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, the two deputy governors,
the PC Chair and the commander of the Ninewa Operations
Command on the joint security architecture. Issawi noted
that the CG's earlier briefing to Sheikh Abdallah Humeid
al-Yawer, acting paramount sheikh of the al-Shammar tribal
confederation, helped allay Sheikh Abdallah's concerns,
particularly that joint U.S.-peshmerga-Iraqi Army checkpoints
would legitimize the presence of peshmerga forces in disputed
internal boundary (DIBs) areas. Noting that senior Ninewa
political figures do not regularly communicate with each
other, he believed recapitulating the briefing for the
governor and other officials would be useful.


3. (C) In addition, Issawi said he wanted to signal to the
two sides that he was still involved and will follow up on
other aspects of his Ninewa initiative. He intended to ask
Governor al-Nujaifi for a list of detainees' names, which he
had still not received. (Note: The issue of non-Kurds
detained by Kurdish assayesh in the DIBs areas and then
transferred to the KRG for detention has become a point of
friction. End note.) Issawi will also follow up on the
status of efforts to recruit 8,000 ethnically-mixed cadres
and into the Iraqi Police and 6,000 into the Iraqi Army.
Issawi also intended to follow up on reports that there had
been complications in disbursing funds for projects funded
out of a portion of Ninewa's FY 2006-2008 budget. (Note: For
security reasons, Ninewa's FY 2006-2008 budget, totaling some
USD 500 million, was not disbursed and was returned to the
GOI. Issawi brokered an agreement to have a significant
portion of that amount returned to the province in the form
of project development funds. End note.)
FORD