US embassy cable - 05AMMAN2531

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 002531 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/23/2015 
TAGS: OREP, PREL, ECON, JO 
SUBJECT: CODEL PELOSI MEETS WITH PRINCE FAISAL 
 
REF: AMMAN 2297 
 
Classified By: Charge d'Affaires David Hale for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1. (C) SUMMARY: CODEL Pelosi engaged Regent Prince Faisal in 
a wide-ranging discussion centered primarily on 
Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects, the potential for Iraqi 
stabilization, and developments in Lebanon.  Faisal provided 
the delegation with his perspectives on Iranian interests in 
the region, factors limiting prospects of Syrian withdrawal 
from Lebanon, and the origins of the recent anti-Jordanian 
demonstrations held in Baghdad.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2. (SBU)  Representative Nancy Pelosi(D-CA), Representative 
Darrell Issa (R-CA), Representative George Miller (D-CA), 
Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), Representative Edward 
Markey (D-MA), Representative Anna Eshoo (D-CA), 
Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Representative Linda 
Sanchez (D-CA), House Sergeant at Arms Wilson Livingood, 
Democratic Leader's office policy advisor Michael Sheehy, and 
other delegation members met with Prince Faisal, in his 
capacity as regent in King Abdullah's absence, on March 23. 
Faisal was accompanied by Minister of Justice Salah 
al-Bashir, who was also acting as Foreign Minister and Prime 
Minister.  The CODEL was accompanied by then-Charge and 
econoff. 
 
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ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN PEACE? 
-------------------------- 
 
3. (C) Leader Pelosi opened the discussion, reiterating her 
support for a peace between Israel and the Palestinians that 
met Israel's security concerns and provided for a sovereign, 
economically and politically viable Palestinian state. 
Faisal stated his belief that the current situation in 
Israeli-Palestinian relations was a window of opportunity 
that needed to be exploited quickly.  Unlike in the past, he 
said, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is interested in 
moving towards a final settlement now - not delaying it into 
the future.  However, the longer he went without seeing any 
tangible results, the more marginalized he would become.  The 
Palestinian people would turn back to the "Hizballah model" 
of dealing with Israel: military confrontation as the only 
way to achieve results.  He said that he felt that the peace 
process was moving forward; however, there were many who had 
an interest in the status quo.  Faisal said the 
(Jordan-initiated) statement that had emanated from the 
recent Arab League summit in Algiers was a step in the right 
direction.  While he wished that the language had left more 
flexibility, the statement in its entirety reaffirmed the 
formula previously explicitly set out in the 2002 Beirut Arab 
League meeting: peace between Israel and the Palestinians 
would essentially mean peace between Israel and the Arab 
World.  The United States, Faisal concluded, could best help 
further this process by being fair, being honest, and 
remaining engaged. 
 
4. (C) Turning, in response to queries from Rep. Waxman, to 
Jordan's role in rebuilding the West Bank and Gaza Strip once 
peace was made, the Regent expressed his interest in 
fostering economic ties.  Unfortunately, he added, those ties 
had been made difficult by Israeli policies aimed at 
maintaining the Palestinian areas as a "captive market."  He 
dismissed Waxman's suggestion of any near-term political 
confederation with the Palestinian areas, noting that the 
late King Hussein had long ago set Jordan's policy with 
regard to such a proposal.  Jordan would entertain the notion 
of such a confederation unless a free Palestinian state 
requested it. 
 
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IRAQ 
---- 
 
5. (C) Faisal expressed mixed feelings about Iraq.  He viewed 
the large number of Iraqis, including Sunnis, who had turned 
out for the election as a hopeful sign; however, he was 
concerned about the amount of "money coming into Iraq from 
Iran."  The key to the future of Iraq would be the new 
constitution: Iraq would go in a very different direction if 
the document had a "Persian, theocratic flavor" rather than 
an "Arab Shi'a, secular flavor."  He elaborated on his 
concerns of Iranian involvement in response to a question 
from Rep. McGovern, stating that the leadership in Iran would 
feel threatened by a successful secular Shi'a state that 
could act as an alternate model for Shi'is in Iran. 
 
6. (C) Faisal noted that Jordan had strongly supported the 
rebuilding of Iraq's security structure by hosting and 
assisting in the training of Iraq's police and military 
forces, providing counterterrorism expertise, and donating 
military equipment. In response to a query from Rep. Miller, 
however, he expressed concern that the effort to train new 
Iraqi troops had put too much emphasis on "quantity over 
quality."  He expressed hope that some of the best-performing 
trainees from the Iraqi military could be sent back to Jordan 
and given additional training to serve in roles as 
non-commissioned and junior officers.  (NOTE: Faisal did not 
differentiate among training conducted for police, military, 
and other trainees, or between personnel trained in Jordan 
and those trained in Iraq.  In a later briefing, Charge 
reviewed the different training programs underway, and the 
significant changes in the Jordan police training curriculum 
implemented last fall.  Post will engage with the jordanian 
leadership in the coming week to update them on the program. 
END NOTE.) 
 
7. (C) In response to a query from Rep. Markey about recent 
anti-Jordanian demonstrations in Iraq, Faisal reviewed events 
in Jordan that had sparked the Iraqi reaction (reftel).  He 
noted that the Jordanian and Iraqi Interior and Defense 
Ministries had worked extremely well together in coordinating 
the protection of the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad and 
Jordanian personnel there, and that the level of 
information-sharing had been high. In fact, Faisal said, the 
Iraqi Interior Ministry had taken in some of the instigators 
of the demonstrations for questioning and passed on 
information to the GOJ that allegedly showed that Ahmed 
Chalabi had paid to "bus the demonstrators in from Hillah." 
Faisal added that he believed that Iran, Syrian intelligence, 
and Hizballah had also all been involved, in a deliberate 
attempt to embarrass King Abdullah while he was in the U.S. 
Implicitly criticizing absent Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulqi, 
Faisal stated that the decision to evacuate the staff of the 
Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad had been a bad one; he noted 
that the entire group would be back in Baghdad shortly. 
(NOTE: Post understands that Jordanian Charge Dimaiye Haddad 
returned to Baghdad March 24. END NOTE.) 
 
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LEBANON 
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8. (C) Rep. Issa noted that for the first time in his memory, 
there was positive movement in Lebanon; Faisal cautiously 
agreed.  He noted that there was an international consensus 
that Syria's occupation there could not continue 
indefinitely; however, Syria would be hard to extract. 
Faisal believed that Damascus would do the minimum amount it 
possibly could to keep international pressure at bay; it 
could hardly do otherwise given the importance of Syrian and 
Syrian friends' commercial and financial interests in 
Lebanon.  The hard-line Ba'thists in Syria were "still living 
in the 1960s," and they would not countenance the loss of 
face that withdrawal would cause.  Finally, the Syrians would 
have difficulty withdrawing even if they wanted to; the 
influx of Syrians into Lebanon, along with Syrian 
machinations, had changed the country's demographics.  Faisal 
claimed that many of the people present at the large 
pro-Syrian counterdemonstration in Beirut on March 8 had 
actually been Syrians.  Faisal concluded his thoughts with an 
appeal to the U.S. to continue to watch the situation 
carefully and to hold Syria to its commitments. 
 
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COMMENT 
------- 
 
9. (C) Atmospherics for the delegation's meeting with the 
Regent were good - even jovial - and Faisal seemed 
particularly pleased by Leader Pelosi's praise of the 
feminine beauty of his cousin Ghazi bin Faisal (briefly king 
of Iraq).  The delegation elicited frank answers from Faisal, 
and heard many of the familiar features of discussions with 
the Royal Family and the security services: strong pleas for 
U.S. engagement in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, 
strong support for the U.S. efforts in Iraq, and distrust of 
Iran, Syria, and Chalabi. 
HALE