US embassy cable - 04ACCRA1171

C O N F I D E N T I A L ACCRA 001171 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/03/2013 
TAGS: PREL, PHUM, GH, ECOWAS 
SUBJECT: GHANAIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ON FAILED GBAGBO MEETING 
 
REF: YATES-BRIDGEWATER TELCON AND E-MAILS 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Mary C. Yates, reason 1.4 (B/D). 
 
 
 1.  (C)  Ambassador Yate and polchief met with Foreign 
Minister Nana Akufo-Addo at his request on June 2. 
Akufo-Addo told Ambassador Yates that a meeting scheduled for 
June 3 in Abuja, consisting of Presidents Kufuor, Obasanjo 
and Gbagbo, Prime Minister Diarra, and ECOWAS Executive 
Secretary Ibn Chambas, to discuss the political impasse in 
 
SIPDIS 
Cote d'Ivoire, had just fallen through.  Gbagbo had initially 
agreed to the meeting, said Akufo-Addo, but had just bowed 
out due to a claimed "invitation" to travel immediately to 
Washington for undisclosed meetings.  Akufo-Addo asked if the 
USG had issued any invitation to Gbagbo.  "We want to know if 
Gbagbo is playing games with us," said Akufo-Addo. 
Ambassador said she was unaware of any invitation from the 
USG but would verify that with the Department.  When 
Ambassador Yates theorized that perhaps Gbagbo perhaps had 
meetings arranged with the UN in New York, Akufo-Addo said 
that "Kofi Annan knows about the meeting and wants Gbagbo 
there (in Abuja)." 
 
2.  (C)  In commenting briefly on the situation in Cote 
d'Ivoire, Akufo-Addo said that "Gbagbo must reach an 
accommodation with Soro, Bedie and Ouattara."  There was, he 
said, "no other option."  He further commented that the 
Linas-Marcoussis Accords (LMA) would not be subject to any 
"review or renegotiation."  While isolated "looks" at 
specific provisions to "enhance implementation" was possible, 
there was no interest within ECOWAS, he said, for any 
"opening up" of the LMA.  "There will be no LMA-2," he said. 
 
3.  (C) Subsequently Ambassador Yates learned from PDAS 
Bridgewater (ref telecon) that the GOCI had recently employed 
a Washington lobbyist, who had been seeking appointments with 
senior Department officials.  The Department had given the 
lobbyist no encouragement, and no appointments or invitations 
had been given.  Ambassador Yates communicated this 
information to Akufo-Addo in a telephone call, also June 2. 
 
4.  (C)  Comment.  Akufo-Addo was his usual brisk and 
business-like self.  While we leave it to our colleagues in 
Abidjan to decipher Gbagbo's true motivation in declining to 
attend the Abuja meeting,  Akufo-Addo took an entirely 
unsympathetic view of what appeared to him to be Gbagbo's 
unconvincing explanations.  End summary. 
Yates