US embassy cable - 04MANAMA525

C O N F I D E N T I A L MANAMA 000525 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR NEA/ARP, 
CAIRO FOR STEVE BONDY, 
LONDON FOR ETHAN GOLDRICH 
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR - JASON BUNTIN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2029 
TAGS: KBCT, PREL, ETRD, ECON, BA 
SUBJECT: ARAB LEAGUE BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL DEMARCHE DELIVERED 
 
REF: SECSTATE 69459 
 
Classified By: Charge de Affaires Robert S. Ford for reasons 
1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C)  Congressman Ryan called the Arab League's boycott of 
Israel a "Free Trade Agreement (FTA) showstopper" in his 
April 7 meetings with parliamentarians, the Minister of 
Finance and National Economy and the Minister of State of 
Foreign Affairs. Although Ryan praised Bahrain for being the 
leader of democratic reform in the region, he expressed his 
hope that Bahrain would likewise take a leadership role in 
countering the boycott of Israel. 
 
2.  (C) As a follow-up to Ryan's presentation, Charge 
provided Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Abdelghaffar 
with documentation that demonstrated an increase in boycott 
compliance requests from 15 in 2002 to 31 this year on April 
12 (reftel). Charge also discussed reftel's tertiary boycott 
contract text examples with Minister Abdelghaffar. Bahrain 
repealed both secondary and tertiary aspects of the boycott 
in 1994 and Abdelghaffar was demonstrably surprised that 
boycott compliance requests were still an issue. Charge urged 
Abdelghaffar to resolve this serious issue to ensure smooth 
passage of the FTA through Congress.  Minister Abdelghaffar 
promised Charge that he would investigate this issue. 
 
3.  (C)  We are following up separately with the Minister of 
Finance and National Economy, who has pledged separately to 
us to resolve the problem cited in the reftel. 
FORD