AMBASSADOR RICE'S MEETING WITH ALGERIAN PERMREP

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 USUN NEW YORK 000126 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2019 TAGS: PREL UNSC PARM AU XI SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RICE'S MEETING WITH ALGERIAN PERMREP BENMEHIDI Classified By: Ambassador Rice for Reasons 1.4(b) and (d) (C) Summary: During the introductory meeting on February 11 between Ambassador Rice and Algerian PermRep Mourad Benmehidi, Ambassador Rice presented the USG's priority issues of peacekeeping, climate change, non-proliferation and arms control, and poverty reduction and development. Benmehidi praised President Obama for re-engagement with the UN and said that his delegation had excellent cooperation with USUN. Benmehidi raised the issue of the Peacebuilding Commission and said its proposals held promise for streamlining and making more efficient the UN's overburdened peacekeeping operations. On counterterrorism, Benmehidi agreed with Ambassador Rice that combating extremists and pursuing economic and social development were linked and that underdevelopment in the Sahel was contributing to crime and extremist activity. Regarding Western Sahara, Benmehidi criticized Morocco's autonomy proposal for its weak legal backing and its failure to take into account the wishes of the Sahrawi people. Benmehidi said Algeria supported the African proposal for Security Council reform, but Ambassador Rice cautioned him that the Africans were isolating themselves over their focus on expanding veto power to new members. Peacekeeping (C) Algerian PermRep Benmehidi praised what he described as excellent cooperation with USUN and President Obama's interest in re-engaging the UN. Ambassador Rice said President Obama is eager to work with the UN, and she presented four priorities for USUN--peacekeeping, climate change, non-proliferation and arms control, and poverty reduction and development. Benmehidi first emphasized that the UN faced a scarcity of resources and an inability to assess when certain peacekeeping missions had become obsolete. Ambassador Rice said she had just met with Under-secretary General for Field Support Susana Malcorra and had learned first-hand how limited financial resources were for peacekeeping operations. Benmehidi said the proposal of the Peacebuilding Commission to smoothly terminate a peacekeeping mandate and consolidate recovery and institution building in a post-peacekeeping environment had not yet been fully implemented. (C) When asked by Ambassador Rice which peacekeeping missions he judged were ready to make that transition, Benmehidi said the United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) was a good candidate. He said Haiti had already reached a stabilization phase and the institutions necessary for post-conflict development had been established, but he admitted that because of Haiti's dependency on MINUSTAH, psychologically it was difficult to terminate the mission. He judged that the Peacebuilding Commission could have the most success in areas that did not involve a territorial dispute such as in Western Sahara. Non-proliferation and Counter-terrorism (C) Benmehidi highlighted that Algeria currently chairs Conference on Disarmament. He said, "You will find us eager to support your non-proliferation objectives," but he pointed out that states should not be dissuaded from accessing peaceful nuclear technology. He said he had recently met with the UN's counter-terrorism, sanctions, and non-proliferation committees and was disappointed to hear many African states suggest that they should not be held to strict non-proliferation standards since they did not possess nuclear technology. Benmehidi said this was the wrong approach. (C) Ambassador Rice praised Algeria for its cooperation on counter-terrorism and asked Benmehidi to assess the al-Qaeda threat in his region. Benmehidi stressed that development and counter-terrorism are linked, and he blamed under-development in the Sahel region for the growth of criminality, smuggling, kidnapping, and international terrorist links. He said kidnappers use half of the ransom money received to purchase weapons and the other half to buy allegiances. He said the GOA was particularly keen to use celebrities in the Muslim world to reach Muslim youth to dissuade them from becoming radicalized. To achieve this objective, Benmehidi said he had proposed to the Secretary General that a well-known Algerian who works at Al-Jazeera become a goodwill ambassador. He said there was broad support for this proposal, including from members of the UN's counterterrorism committees and from Assistant-Secretary General Robert Orr. USUN NEW Y 00000126 002 OF 002 Western Sahara (C) Benmehidi asked the Ambassador to clarify the USG's stance on Western Sahara. Ambassador Rice said she had recently spoken with Chris Ross, the Secretary General's Personal Envoy to Western Sahara, and the USG is very supportive of his role. She acknowledged that the administration had not yet initiated a formal policy review of Western Sahara and consequently could not provide a great deal of specificity. Benmehidi said France was encouraging the international community to accept Morocco's autonomy plan, but he stated that this plan was not credible because it did not take into account the wishes of the Sahrawi people, and it dismissed the legality of the issue (probably a reference to the advisory opinion of the ICJ in 1975, which stated that Morocco had no historical claim to the territory of Western Sahara). Security Council Reform (C) Benmehidi said Algeria supports the African position on UNSC reform: two African seats with veto power. He said there is no merit to the idea of permanent membership in the Council without the veto. Ambassador Rice questioned how the AU would reach consensus on which countries would serve; Benmehidi said the membership would choose two "important" states to serve on behalf of the continent. Ambassador Rice said the U.S. understood that the world had changed considerably since 1945 and was open to responsible reform of the Security Council, stressing that any reform to the Council must ensure that it can act efficiently and effectively. Ambassador Rice said that African countries needed to decide on what strategy they want for reform because they had in effect made themselves irrelevant to the debate by singularly insisting on veto power. Rice