US embassy cable - 04SANAA723

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 SANAA 000723 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/30/2014 
TAGS: PREL, YM 
SUBJECT: YEMENI FM: POSTPONEMENT OF PLANNED AL SUMMIT IN 
TUNIS A "SURPRISE" 
 
REF: A. TUNIS 675 
 
     B. TUNIS 673 
     C. FBIS GMP20040326000139 
     D. FBIS GMP20040328000016 
     E. SANAA 671 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Edmund J. Hull for reasons 1.5 (b and d) 
 
1. (c) Summary:  Ambassador met with FM Qirbi on 3/31 
primarily to discuss the reasons for the postponement of the 
Arab League summit planned for March 29-30 in Tunis.  Qirbi 
characterized the March 27 announcement as a last-minute 
"surprise."  Citing heated discussions on secondary issues, 
debates over semantics and the role of civil society, and the 
apparent rejection of undisclosed, proposed Tunisian changes 
to Charter documents, he suggested that Tunisia's leadership 
canceled the summit to avoid public disagreement.  Qirbi 
commented favorably on the discussions of the various 
initiatives and said there was "60 to 70 percent common 
ground" among the proposals.  He said that there are on-going 
communications between the foreign ministers and country 
leaders to address Tunisia's concerns and that he expects 
that Tunisia may still host the postponed summit.  AID 
Representative and Pol/Econ Chief, as notetaker, also 
attended the meeting.  End summary. 
 
SIGNIFICANT "COMMON GROUND" ON PROPOSALS -- TUNISIA UPSET 
OVER REJECTED CHANGES 
 
2. (c) Echoing other Arab leaders (ref b), on 3/31 FM Abu 
Bakr al-Qirbi told the Ambassador that postponement of the 
Tunis summit was a complete "surprise."  He added that no 
explanation was offered and that during a recent interview 
(ref c) he had debunked a reporter's misconception that the 
U.S. pressured Tunisian President Ben Ali to cancel the 
meetings.  Offering his best guess, Qirbi suggested that "hot 
debates" on secondary issues -- a report from the Council on 
Economic and Social Affairs, the AL's push to include 
materials on Arab language and culture at a Frankfurt book 
exhibit, and the role of civil society -- as a source of 
concern for Tunisia, despite the fact that a closed FM 
meeting had resolved the issues. 
 
3. (c) Qirbi said he thought the review of the different 
initiatives went smoothly, noting that "60 to 70 percent" of 
the proposals covered "common ground."  He explained that 
they were close to finalizing the documents when the 
postponement announcement was made.  He hypothesized that the 
Charter of Arab Consolidation proposed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt 
and Syria -- approved, with significant changes, by the FMs 
at the beginning of March -- may have been a further cause of 
concern.  He complained that Tunisia wanted to make changes, 
but did not provide a paper outlining its request or explain 
its ideas to the FMs.  His view is that Tunisia possibly may 
have been attempting to weaken the Charter, and that the 
drafting countries opposed the proposed edits.  Qirbi also 
noted that bilateral discussions with Saudi Arabia are 
continuing.  He said that he suggested that Ben Ali, as chair 
of the summit, express his point of view in an opening 
address and have his ideas considered on that basis. 
 
4. (c) Commenting that most countries have made positive 
statements about AL reform, the Ambassador asked about the 
differing views among the countries.  Qirbi responded by 
identifying three positions:  Saudi Arabia-Egypt-Syria, 
Qatar-Yemen-Oman (and possibly Morocco) and the "silent 
group."  He explained that press reports on the "Arab 
position" were not quite accurate because the articles pulled 
mostly from the Yemeni AL papers (ref e), along with the 
Sana'a declaration, neither of which were accepted by the 
Saudis or the Syrians.  He cited the examples of Saudi 
Arabian concern about the word "democracy," Egyptian and 
Omani concerns about the role of "civil society" in reforms 
and debates on "governance" and the empowerment of women, but 
added that he believes that all parties have the same 
objective and that the differences can be reconciled. 
 
CHALLENGE TO ADDRESS TUNISIAN CONCERNS AND MOVE FORWARD 
 
5. (c) Overall, Qirbi characterized the debates as healthy 
and reflective of the concerns of each individual country 
which, for example, are different for Somalia than they would 
be for Saudi Arabia or Yemen.  He also identified resolution 
of the Middle East conflict as the paramount issue for the AL 
and said that there was extensive discussion of the 
relationship of the Arab World with the U.S. and Europe, as 
well as their roles in implementing human and economic 
reforms.  He concluded that the challenge now is to address 
Tunisia's particular concerns.  Given on-going communications 
between the foreign ministers and country leaders for this 
purpose, he expects that Tunisia may get a second shot at 
hosting.  The Ambassador thanked Qirbi for his advance 
briefing on the summit (ref e) and requested that he keep us 
informed of any developments. 
 
6. (c) Comment:  Qirbi's assessment of the reasons for the 
postponement overlap in some respects with Tunisia's private 
explanations (refs a and b), but notably did not highlight 
discord over any statements on the peace process nor the 
expected absence of key leaders.     The very nature of the 
discussions -- various proposals somewhat messily debated and 
not perfectly wrapped up with a bow -- indicate that a 
democratic process was in play in Tunis.  Qirbi's optimism 
that these debates will eventually produce a reasonable, 
agreed-upon result is clearly reflected in his continued 
private and public emphasis on the significant commonalties 
between the proposed reform initiatives and the Arab World's 
acceptance of the fact that government reforms are needed, 
even if the rate of progress toward democracy is slow and 
varies from country to country.  End comment. 
HULL