US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD2446

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BAGHDAD 002446 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/09/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, KDEM, KISL, IZ, Sunni Arab 
SUBJECT: TALABANI AGGRIEVED WITH JAFARI EVEN AS HE MAKES 
STRONG EFFORT ON SUNNI OUTREACH 
 
REF: A) BAGHDAD 2427 B) 2436 
 
Classified By: Classified by James F. Jeffrey, Charge d'Affaires, for r 
 
easons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1. (C) Summary: President Talabani told Charge in a June 8 
meeting that Prime Minister Jafari is carrying out his office 
unilaterally and marginalizing Kurdish officials.  Talabani 
said he planned to meet Jafari and the Supreme Council for 
Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI) leader Abd al-Aziz 
al-Hakim that night to complain over issues ranging from 
slights over property and ethnocentric speeches to 
destabilizing moves that have blocked money allotted to 
Kirkuk and disempowered Kurdish cabinet officials.  Talabani 
said his relationship with Mas'ud Barzani is excellent and 
both men are working together in an outreach to Turkmen 
leaders in Kirkuk.  Talabani said he supported adding 25 
Sunni Arabs to the constitution drafting committee.  He 
agreed with the Charge's call for serious Sunni Arab 
inclusion and promised to work with MNF-I in resolving 
security problems in the insurgency-plagued city of Hawija. 
End Summary. 
 
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An Internal Iraqi Summit Set for Tonight 
---------------------------------------- 
 
2. (C) President Talabani told Charge and DCM in a June 8 
meeting that he was attending an internal Iraqi summit that 
night to discuss a host of accumulating disputes over 
government power sharing, Kirkuk, and Sunni Arab inclusion in 
the TNA Constitution Drafting Committee.  The meeting will 
bring together Talabani, Prime Minister Jafari, Vice 
President Adil abd al-Mehdi and SCIRI leader Abd al-Aziz 
al-Hakim is hosting.  Talabani said that he considered this 
group to be the key leadership committee in Iraq.  Hakim, he 
pointed out, only allowed Jafari to take the Prime 
Ministership in exchange for being considered the "political 
authority" (marja) of the Shia coalition. 
 
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Concern Over Jafari's Expanding Power 
------------------------------------- 
 
3. (C) Talabani told the Charge that he is increasingly 
concerned that Prime Minister Jafari is acting beyond his 
legal authorities in running the state.  The key difference 
in their views, Talabani made clear, lies in their definition 
of Iraq's "government."  Jafari seems to think he possesses 
unilateral executive authority, Talabani said, but TAL 
Article 24 defines the "Iraqi Transitional Government" as 
consisting of the National Assembly, Presidency Council and 
Council of Ministers. 
 
4. (C) Talabani said this article leads to the conclusion 
that "there must be agreement between the two lists (Kurdish 
and Shia) about everything."  Talabani proceeded to lay out 
Kurdish grievances in detail.  (Note: The points echoed those 
found in a blunt and angry letter Talabani recently wrote to 
Jafari, a copy of which was passed to Charge on June 7 by 
Deputy Prime Minister Rowsch Shaways (REFTEL B).  End Note) 
 
5. (C) The following were the key grievances: 
 
-- OBJECTING TO LAITH KUBBA'S APPOINTMENT: Talabani said that 
Jafari acted illegally in unilaterally selecting Laith Kubba 
as the government's spokesman.  Charge replied that he 
understood Kubba to be Jafari's personal spokesman.  Talabani 
shot back that Kubba is acting with the authority of a Deputy 
Minister, a position that must be approved by the cabinet and 
ratified by the Presidency Council.  (NOTE: Talabani's letter 
denounces Kubba for his allegedly "chauvinistic and 
antagonistic position towards federalism as well as his 
provocative statements in America against the rights of the 
Kurdish people..." END NOTE) 
 
-- FREEZING DPM SHAWAYS OUT OF KEY COMMITTEES:  Talabani said 
Jafari has frozen his deputy prime ministers out of power, 
relegating them to little more than "ministers of state." 
Jafari's has created nine ministerial committees directly 
reportable to him, Talabani complained, subsuming portfolios 
the deputies should handle.  (NOTE:  The letter refers to 
this insult to Rowsch Shaways as "an aggression on the rights 
of the representatives of the Kurdish people and national 
consensus."  END NOTE) 
 
-- UNACCOUNTABLE BUDGET EXPENDITURES: Talabani said that 
Jafari has spent some $38 million since coming to office 
without giving the Presidency Council any idea where the 
money has gone.  (NOTE: In previous meetings with Emboffs, 
Talabani has accused ex-President Ghazi al-Yawar of the same, 
threatening to order audits by the Public Integrity 
Commission.  END NOTE) 
 
-- BARHAM SALIH DISEMPOWERED: Talabani complained that Jafari 
had robbed Planning Minister Barham Salih of real authority. 
(NOTE: His letter angrily describes Jafari of "usurping" 
Salih's "rights" in violation of a side agreement made on the 
day the government was formed.  END NOTE) 
 
-- UNDOING KIRKUK AGREEMENT: Talabani said that Jafari has 
undone a major achievement of the Allawi government in 
blocking an agreement to provide $125 million in funding to 
the Iraqi Property Claims Commission and the so-called 
Article 58 Committee, whih would help resolve the Kirkuk 
situation.  $25 million had been disbursed by the time Jafari 
took office, Talabani said, and Jafari has blocked the 
disbursement of the remaining $100 million to the two 
entities. 
 
-- BADGERING KURDS AND BILKING THE PRESIDENCY:  Talabani said 
the Jafari government has inappropriately badgered former 
National Council Speaker (and PUK leader) Fuad Ma'asum for 
the return of his armored car.  Ma'asum still needs the 
vehicle and is a key TNA official, Talabani pointed out. 
More seriously, Talabani said, the Jafari cabinet has 
confiscated significant holdings from the presidency office 
without accounting for them.  Talabani said that 19 cars have 
been taken from him and 140 are registered to his office with 
no record of where they are.  Furthermore, the presidency has 
control over 12 houses but Talabani does not know where they 
are and has no house of his own.  (COMMENT: These 
irregularities may be the responsibility of former President 
Ghazi al-Yawar, not Jafari. END COMMENT) 
 
------------------------------------- 
Progress on Sunni and Kirkuk Outreach 
------------------------------------- 
 
6. (C) Once he moved off of Kurdish grievances with Jafari, 
Talabani's mood brightened and he laid out progress on 
several fronts: 
 
-- STRONG SUNNI ARAB PRESENCE FOR CONSTITUTION COMMITTEE: 
Talabani said he had met with several Sunni Arab leaders and 
supported the addition of 25 Sunni Arab members to the 
Constitution Drafting Committee.  Talabani said he expected 
them to act as "equal members" while respecting that the 
ultimate product of the committee would pass through the 
National Assembly for approval.  He expected Abd al-Aziz 
al-Hakim to agree to this formulation, which brings the 
committee up to 80 members.  The issue would be finalized in 
2-3 days, he said. 
 
-- SOLID RELATIONS WITH BARZANI: Talabani said his 
relationship with Barzani is excellent. He encouraged the DCM 
to go forward with a planned trip to meet Barzani in the 
north in the coming days.  Talabani said that Barzani had 
attended on invitation the recent 13th PUK anniversary 
celebration in Dokan, a major statement of unity.  The KRG 
has officially begun its work with the successful election of 
a speaker for the assembly and a cabinet. "All problems have 
been solved," Talabani said. 
 
-- IMPROVING RELATIONS IN KIRKUK: Talabani said he believed 
Iraq faced a "golden opportunity" to solve the problems of 
Kirkuk and was arguing this to Barzani as well.  Talabani 
said he had personally received Faruq Abdallah, head of the 
Iraqi Turkmen Front, and reached agreement that the Turkmen 
deserve a role in the administration of Kirkuk.  Talabani 
said he had convinced Barzani to join him in working with the 
Front.  Talabani added that he considered the Turkish 
government's attitude in the area improved. 
 
-- TROUBLE IN HAWIJA: Talabani agreed with Charge that the 
city of Hawija south of Kirkuk is seeing problematic 
insurgent activity, particularly from the Ansar al-Sunna. 
Talabani said he believed the group was exploiting Arab 
concerns in the province over Kurdish influence.  The key 
will be improving the relationships in the area.  "We must 
convince the Arabs to live with us," he said.  "Hawija has 
always had strong cells of Syrian Ba'athists and Saddam's 
Ba'athists."  Talabani was concerned that Iraqi and U.S. 
forces better coordinate arrest and detention efforts in the 
area, he said. 
--------------------------------- 
Looking Forward to New Ambassador 
--------------------------------- 
7. (C) Talabani was aware of Ambassador Khalilzad's SFRC 
hearing and said he looked forward to his arrival.  Talabani 
agreed when Charge urged him to continue his positive work on 
Sunni Arab inclusion in the Constitution Committee.  Talabani 
also agreed with Charge that a stronger dialogue with Jafari 
was needed to resolve the disputes he laid out. 
 
----------------------------------- 
COMMENT: Iraq's Embattled Executive 
----------------------------------- 
 
8. (C) COMMENT: As with Shaways and in DCM's meetings with FM 
Zebari and Finance Minister Allawi, we urged Talabani to 
pursue constant, non-confrontational dialogue on this and to 
make haste in the process of adding Sunni Arabs to the 
constitution drafting committee.  Those are the paths to 
resolving these disputes and these leaders appear to be 
heading down them.  The internal summit Abd al-Aziz al-Hakim 
is hosting is the right forum for these men to hash out power 
sharing on the ground.  And the constitution committee, now 
poised to include a large delegation of Sunni Arabs, is the 
right forum for them to enshrine power sharing in the law. 
END COMMENT. 
 
9. (U) REO HILLA, REO BASRA, REO MOSUL, and REO KIRKUK, 
minimize considered. 
Jeffrey