Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09DOHA33
2009-01-14 10:03:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Doha
Cable title:  

QATAR-ISRAEL CONTACTS ON GAZA AID GO NOWHERE

Tags:  PGOV PREL QA IS 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO6394
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHDO #0033 0141003
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 141003Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8608
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHMFISS/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000033 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL QA IS
SUBJECT: QATAR-ISRAEL CONTACTS ON GAZA AID GO NOWHERE

Classified By: Ambassador Joseph LeBaron, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
(C) KEY POINTS
--------------

-- Qatar's Prime Minister asked Israeli Foreign Minister
Livni in early January for the GOI to permit delivery of
Qatari relief supplies via Ben Gurion Airport.

-- Israel would only agree if no personnel accompanied the
shipment, a condition the GOQ rejected.

-----------
(C) COMMENT
-----------

-- Even during this low-point in Israel's relations with the
Arab world, the Qataris apparently still prefer to coordinate
Gaza aid shipments with Israel rather than with Egypt.

-- This preference likely speaks more to the poor state of
Qatar-Egypt relations than to any particular Qatari desire to
deal with Israel.

End Key Points and Comment.

C O N F I D E N T I A L DOHA 000033

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/15/2019
TAGS: PGOV PREL QA IS
SUBJECT: QATAR-ISRAEL CONTACTS ON GAZA AID GO NOWHERE

Classified By: Ambassador Joseph LeBaron, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).

--------------
(C) KEY POINTS
--------------

-- Qatar's Prime Minister asked Israeli Foreign Minister
Livni in early January for the GOI to permit delivery of
Qatari relief supplies via Ben Gurion Airport.

-- Israel would only agree if no personnel accompanied the
shipment, a condition the GOQ rejected.

--------------
(C) COMMENT
--------------

-- Even during this low-point in Israel's relations with the
Arab world, the Qataris apparently still prefer to coordinate
Gaza aid shipments with Israel rather than with Egypt.

-- This preference likely speaks more to the poor state of
Qatar-Egypt relations than to any particular Qatari desire to
deal with Israel.

End Key Points and Comment.


1. (C) Israeli Trade Representative in Qatar, Roi Rosenblit,
told DCM Ratney January 13 that during the last telephone
conversation between Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani
and Israeli Foreign Minister Livni earlier in January, Shaykh
Hamad asked Israel to permit two planeloads of relief
supplies to land at Ben Gurion Airport and be transferred
overland to Gaza. Livni, according to Rosenblit, offered to
look into the feasibility of doing this. The GOI took over a
week to respond; by that point, the air campaign in Gaza had
transitioned to a ground campaign and the GOI would only
agree to facilitate movement of the cargo without any
accompanying Qatari personnel. The Qataris would not agree
to this condition, and Rosenblit understood that the supplies
were later shipped via Egypt.


2. (C) Rosenblit said that if the shipment did take place,
neither the Qatar Red Crescent nor any other
quasi-governmental group would have managed it.
Responsibility for this (abortive) operation was delegated
personally to Qatar's de facto Interior Minister, Sheikh
Abdulla bin Nasser Al Thani. That might explain, Rosenblit
offered, rumors that the Qataris were planning to send search
and rescue teams to Gaza, since such operations would fall
under Sheikh Abdulla's purview. Sheikh Abdulla told the
Ambassador January 12 that no such plan was in the works,
contradicting what working-level contacts had earlier told
Embassy Doha's Office of Military Cooperation.
LeBaron