US embassy cable - 05AMMAN631

S E C R E T AMMAN 000631 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EB/ESC/TFS (DNELSON), S/CT (KUSHNER), NEA/ARPI 
(TWILLIAMS), NEA/ELA (DBARON), IO/PSC (JSCHWEITZER) 
NSC FOR JKEMERSON 
TREASURY FOR ZARATE 
OFAC FOR RWERNER 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2006 
TAGS: KTFN, ETTC, EFIN, PTER, PREL, CVIS 
SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE: PRENOTIFICATION OF DESIGNATION 
OF FADHLI AND DARWISH 
 
REF: STATE 9956 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b), (d), a 
nd (e) 
 
1. (S) On January 18 emboffs delivered reftel points to Walid 
Obeidat, special assistant to the office director for the 
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Siwar Massadeh from the 
Ministry,s Legal Affairs Department.  Obeidat stated that he 
would immediately take initial steps to coordinate with 
Jordan's mission to the UN and with FM Mulki.  He noted, 
however, that the upcoming five-day Eid al-Adha holiday 
(beginning January 19) would make a timely decision on 
Jordanian co-sponsorship of the designation somewhat more 
difficult to coordinate between the relevant GOJ stakeholders. 
 
2. (C)  On a separate but related matter, Obeidat confirmed 
that a new interagency committee, stood up to more 
efficiently manage bilateral requests on terrorism financing 
and related matters, met for the first time on January 16. 
The committee was created as a result of a directive from the 
Prime Minister signed in September 2004.  Committee 
participants include the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of 
Finance, the Central Bank, the General Intelligence 
Department, and the MFA.  Obeidat said the January 16 meeting 
was positive, and all participants are committed to 
developing an efficient mechanism to respond to requests for 
designation and freezing of assets in a timely manner. 
Because it was the first meeting, however, Obeidat said 
matters of substance were not addressed, including how to 
respond to several outstanding requests conveyed in our 
demarches in recent months.  Massadeh noted that the 
committee would next convene on February 1, ahead of a DOJ 
delegation visit to Jordan.  Obeidat promised to keep us 
apprised of this committee,s activities. 
HALE