US embassy cable - 04ABUDHABI1831

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ABU DHABI 001831 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/PI 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2009 
TAGS: PREL, KDEM, PGOV, ECON, NATO, KMPI, TC 
SUBJECT: UAE - Talk of reform in advance of the G8 
Summit 
 
Ref: (A) Lisbon 817, (B) State 106755, (C) Abu Dhabi 
 
1515, (D) State 103166, (E) State 86312, (F) Abu Dhabi 
923, (G) Abu Dhabi 906 
 
Classified by Ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba, reasons 
1.5 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) Summary: There is a lively dialogue about the 
need for political, economic, and educational reforms 
in the UAE.  We read about it in the local press, hear 
about it from our contacts, and we may be contributing 
to it by sending Emiratis on Middle East Partnership 
Initiative (MEPI) programs.  In private meetings with 
A/S Burns during his visit to Abu Dhabi last March for 
the U.S.-UAE Strategic Partnership dialogue, the UAE's 
leadership commented favorably about the need for 
reforms.  Publicly, Dubai Crown Prince Shaykh Mohammed 
bin Rashid told the World Economic Forum in Amman in 
May that reform is the key to economic problems the 
Arab world faces.  Regardless of whether reform is 
Arab-inspired or U.S.-inspired, and regardless of 
whether reform comes sooner or later, it is a concept 
that is very much on people's minds here in the UAE. 
 
2. (C) We have shared the G8 Greater Middle East 
documents with our government, business, and civil 
society contacts per Department and NEA Bureau 
instructions, urging our interlocutors to contribute 
to the dialogue and telling them that we valued their 
input.  For whatever reasons, the response has been 
very limited.  Nevertheless, we have tried to capture 
what some Emiratis have been saying about reforms in 
advance of the G8 Summit next week.  We also have only 
limited information about the separate, but 
complementary proposal for a NATO cooperative security 
initiative with the region.  End Summary. 
 
Reform: Privately and publicly, leaders are for it 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
3. (C) Emiratis got their first glimpse of the Greater 
Middle East Initiative on February 29 when the local 
press published a draft of the GME that had been 
carried by the London-based Arabic daily "Al Hayat" on 
its Web site.  Information and Culture Minister Shaykh 
Abdullah bin Zayed told A/S Burns during the latter's 
visit to Abu Dhabi for the Strategic Partnership 
dialogue on March 21 that the UAE would prefer to have 
an exchange of views on reforms earlier in the 
consultative process rather than reading about them in 
the press (ref F).  Shaykh Abdullah went on to 
acknowledge that the region was in need of reform, but 
"it is not a thing we can do overnight."  Abu Dhabi 
Crown Prince Shaykh Khalifa told A/S Burns later that 
day that each country can begin to evaluate its 
circumstances and priorities gradually, and added that 
the UAE welcomes any friend who wants to demonstrate 
how reform will benefit UAE society (ref G).  The most 
public call for reform (though he did not specifically 
mention the UAE) came from Shaykh Mohamed bin Rashid 
Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Minister of 
Defense, who told the World Economic Forum in Amman on 
May 16 that administrative and political reform is the 
key to economic problems in the Arab world.  Shaykh 
Mohamed added that young officials must take an active 
part in modernization and administrative reform.  None 
of our regular contacts within the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs offered any comment on GME-related documents 
that the Department asked us to share, including the 
various drafts of the "G8 Plan of Support for Reform" 
(refs B and E). 
 
Civil society speaks out on reform 
---------------------------------- 
 
4. (C) UAE University political science professor 
Ebtisam Al-Kitbi did have some comments about the 
draft "G8 Plan of Support" and reform in general.  At 
a GME conference hosted by the Portuguese and the 
Moroccans on May 19 in Lisbon (ref A), Al-Kitbi said 
that reforms are limited by Arab states because of 
strict controls, and that the response to 
globalization has been mostly from the radical fringe. 
She observed further that the events on 9/11 prompted 
the USG to use military might, but also to recognize 
the need to push for internal Arab reforms.  Al-Kitbi 
said U.S. credibility is diminished in the Arab world. 
 
5. (C) After reviewing the draft "G8 Plan of Support" 
Al-Kitbi wrote to us on May 26 saying that the plan 
generally was excellent and satisfied the basic 
requirements for reform.  However, she asked what 
mechanisms (e.g. carrot and stick approach) would be 
used to persuade GME countries to adopt reforms.  Al- 
Kitbi was skeptical that leaders in the region would 
act on reforms unless pressured by the outside to do 
so.  She said the G8 need to demonstrate that it is 
serious about adopting this plan of reforms.  Al-Kitbi 
further recommended that the GME reform plan be 
supervised by international organizations.  This way, 
she said, those in power would not be as inclined to 
oppose the reform plan as something coming from the 
U.S. or the West. 
 
6. (C) Al-Kitbi also urged greater dialogue between 
Islamic groups and Arab governments or "neutral" 
Western organizations as a way to better understand 
what these groups want and why they turn to political 
violence.  She said that excluding these groups from 
dialogue and dealing with them only from a security 
perspective would lead to more violence.  Finally, Al- 
Kitbi sought clarification on the issue of assistance 
to civil society groups in the region (section 2.7 in 
the draft "G8 Plan of Support").  In her view, the 
plan should explain what type of assistance would be 
available for people in the region whose human rights 
are being violated. 
 
7. (C) UAE University education professor Khalifa Al- 
Suweidi also offered comment on the "G8 Plan of 
Support."  He said that the UAE is in a better 
position than many other Arab countries in terms of 
progress made on educational and economic reforms. 
"There have been small steps taken in the right 
direction," he said.  Al-Suweidi added that the 
challenge will be how to implement the plan's 
recommendations according to the particular 
characteristics of each country. 
 
8. (U) Aicha Sultan, a Dubai columnist for the Arabic 
"Al-Bayan" newspaper, wrote in her June 2 column that 
reform is an issue that has to be discussed and people 
should not create excuses for not pursuing reforms. 
Everyone in the Arab street knows about reform, there 
is no way to ignore it, she wrote.  The attack at Al- 
Khobar in Saudi Arabia demonstrates among other things 
that Arab youth are very lost, she added, and the best 
way to counter violence is through educational and 
political reform. 
 
NATO initiative: A complementary piece of GME 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
9. (C) The UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Under 
Secretary Abdullah Rashid and NATO Deputy Secretary 
 
SIPDIS 
General Alessandro Minuto Rizzo met in Brussels on May 
17 on the margins of the EU-GCC annual consultative 
gathering.  We understand from a readout of that 
meeting that the UAE and other GCC states were 
interested in NATO's proposal for a cooperative 
security initiative with countries in the region. 
Abdullah Rashid raised the possibility of a NATO-GCC 
relationship and said he considered a bilateral 
dialogue with NATO on security issues as a useful 
starting point.  We had earlier communicated points in 
ref D with the UAEG, including the possibility of a 
visit by NATO Deputy SYG Rizzo to the region (ref C). 
We have heard nothing further from either NATO or the 
UAEG about further consultations. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
10. (C) We have continued our dialogue on reform with 
senior host government officials, business, and civil 
society using the papers and instructions sent to us 
by the Department and NEA Bureau.  Government 
officials have attended the World Economic Forum, the 
EU-GCC gathering, and the Arab League, and in each 
case discussed or heard about reform.  The UAE press 
publishes stories daily about the reform debate, and 
UAE academics are going to international conferences 
to address the issue.  We will continue to encourage 
Emiratis to participate in MEPI programs just as they 
have done already by going to the Campaign School in 
Doha and the Women and the Law forum in Amman earlier 
this year. 
WAHBA