PURSUING REQUEST FOR GOK APPROVAL TO BROADCAST

S E C R E T KUWAIT 000005 NOFORN SIPDIS NEA/ARP, NEA/RA E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/21/2019 TAGS: PREL BBG KPAO KU IR SUBJECT: PURSUING REQUEST FOR GOK APPROVAL TO BROADCAST FROM NEW IBB TRANSMITTER REF: A. STATE 119316 ¶B. KUWAIT 1112 Classified By: Ambassador Deborah K. Jones for reasons 1.4 b and d ¶1. (S/NF) During a December 30 meeting with MFA U/S Khaled Jarallah, Ambassador pursued ref A points concerning USG desire to obtain GOK permission to broadcast into Iran from a soon-to-be completed new transmitter at IBB's Kuwait Transmitting Station. Noting she'd raised this months ago with the Information Minister, who'd deferred to the Foreign Minister, Ambassador explained background contained ref A to Jarallah and urged that now was the time to shape the debate taking place in Iran; the US was not seeking to overthrow the regime but to allow the free flow of information. GOK permission to initiate the broadcast would help in that effort. ¶2. (S/NF) Ambassador explained, per ref A, that Kuwait's Ministry of Information had filed an inaccurate registration with the ITU which falsely stated that the frequency would be used by a non-directional, low power transmitter and had subsequently sought from IBB data to support the inaccurate filing; Ambassador added that the USG is not prepared to provide dishonest information on our ITU registration and urged that Kuwait agree to allow us to transmit on a non-interference basis. Ambassador also noted Iran's incessant spiking of current IBB broadcasts from Kuwait. ¶3. (S/NF) Jarallah's initial response was to urge that we be in a listening mode with the Iranians (see septel). He asked whether Radio Farda broadcast from other countries in the region and whether Iran could identify the source of the broadcasting. Ambassador responded in the affirmative to both questions, citing IBB operations in the UAE, Germany, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Jarallah undertook to raise this matter with the Foreign Minister, but gave the clear impression Kuwait would prefer to retain a low profile concerning any unilateral or bilateral (vice UN) actions that could be interpreted as provocative by the Iranians. ********************************************* ********* For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it ********************************************* ********* JONES