US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD3016

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 003016 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/20/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV 
SUBJECT: IRAQ AMBASSADOR-DESIGNATE FEARS CHILL IN 
IRAQ-EGYPT RELATIONS 
 
REF: BAGHDAD 2782 
 
Classified By: Charge d' Affaires David M. Satterfield for reasons 1.4 
(b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C/NF) SUMMARY: Iraq Ambassador-designate to Egypt, Safia 
al-Suhail, worries that Iraqi-Egyptian relations will chill 
unless the Iraqi government takes the initiative after the 
kidnapping and subsequent murder of the Egyptian Charge. 
Al-Suhail told PolOff July 18 that before this tragic 
incident, bilateral relations were on the upswing.  The 
Iraqis are now waiting word from the Egyptians to travel to 
Cairo to deliver a condolence letter from President Talabini 
to President Mubarak.  To al-Suhail, however, the Iraqi 
government is more interested in cultivating relations with 
Iran than with Sunni Arab countries and risks cooling its 
relations with Egypt.  She also alleges that Iraqi Baathists 
in Cairo, including the former Iraqi Ambassador there, are 
lobbying the Egyptian government not to recognize the current 
Iraqi regime.  Much of what al-Suhail perceives as misguided 
Iraqi focus is really disorganization in Baghdad and an 
inability of the Iraqi bureaucracy to pursue multiple 
initiatives at one time.  Our encouragement of both 
governments not to succumb to the recent setback and to 
continue their efforts to improve their relationship will be 
helpful.  END SUMMARY. 
 
2.  (C/NF) Long-time Embassy contact and Iraq 
Ambassador-designate to Egypt, Safia al-Suhail, warned PolOff 
July 18 that Iraqi-Egyptian relations could chill unless the 
Iraqi government takes the initiative to improve them after 
the July 2 kidnapping of the Egyptian Charge in Iraq, 
Ambassador Ihab al Sherif (Reftel).  (Note: The Egyptian 
government announced July 7 that al-Sherif's captors, 
reportedly an al-Qaeda-affiliated group, had executed him. 
End Note).  Al-Suhail explained that before this tragic 
incident occurred, the Egyptian government had granted her 
agrement, and she was preparing to travel to Cairo to assume 
her duties. (Bio note:  Al-Suhail, a Shia Arab from the 
prominent al-Tamimi tribe, is the women's activist who 
attended the President's 2005 State of the Union address in 
Washington.  Al-Suhail supports former PM Ayad Allawi, and 
she is critical of the current Iraqi government.  Her 
husband, Baktiar Amin, who is a Sunni Kurd, was the Minister 
of Human Rights under the Allawi government.  End 
 Bio note.) 
 
3.  (C/NF) Al-Suhail related that President Talabani had 
asked her to deliver a condolence letter to his Egyptian 
counterpart Mubarak.  The Iraqi Foreign Ministry had sent a 
dipnote to the Egyptian MFA requesting a suitable travel date 
to deliver the letter.  The Egyptians had not given the 
Iraqis a date, and rather, asked them to wait awhile.  In the 
meantime, the Egyptian Embassy in Baghdad had virtually 
closed its operations, leaving one employee to answer the 
phone.  Iraqis requiring Egyptian visas must now travel to 
Amman, explained al-Suhail.  The comments of some Iraqi 
officials suggesting that al-Sherif had possibly been killed 
"because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time," 
perhaps even meeting with insurgents, had drawn the ire of 
the Egyptians, she added. 
 
4.  (C/NF) Though Foreign Minister Zebari had assured 
al-Suhail he would contact the Egyptians again about the 
travel date, Zebari had left with the Prime Minister to Iran 
without doing so.  Al-Suhail opined that the Iraqi government 
was more focused on Iranian ties than with relations with 
Egypt and other Sunni Arab countries.  This lopsided approach 
would do little to assuage the fears of Sunni Arabs in Iraq 
and other countries that the current Iraqi government might 
ally with Iran to their detriment, she alleged. 
 
5.  (C/NF) Meanwhile, Iraqi Baathists residing in Cairo were 
lobbying the Egyptian government not to recognize the Iraqi 
government, asserted al-Suhail.  She claimed that the head of 
this lobby effort is former Iraqi Ambassador Mohsen Khalil, 
who received political asylum in Egypt.  Al-Suhail added that 
Mustapha Bakri, who heads an Egyptian opposition party and 
had supported Saddam Hussein, was also aiding Iraqi Baathists 
efforts to erode a still-delicate bilateral relationship. 
Al-Suhail observed that the Iraqi MFA's administrative 
undersecretary, Sa'ad al-Hayani, was in some way complicit 
with this Baathist lobby effort.  He had stalled on her 
agrement paperwork, she complained. 
 
6.  (C/NF) Comment: Some of what al-Suhail sees as conspiracy 
or misguided focus within the Iraqi government is, in fact, 
the result of bureaucratic disorganization in Baghdad.  The 
Iraqi MFA, for example, takes few initiatives on even routine 
matters in the absence of Foreign Minister Zebari.  The Prime 
Minister's office likewise has great trouble organizing 
itself to give guidance to the MFA.  Thus, the PM's office 
can focus its work on a trip to Iran, but that process means 
its staffers will take no time on others issues such as, for 
example, repairing relations with Egypt.  Nonetheless, from 
our perspective in Baghdad, al-Suhail's conclusion that the 
kidnapping and reported murder of the Egyptian Charge has 
chilled the fragile Iraqi-Egyptian bilateral ties appears 
correct.  Our encouragement of both governments not to 
succumb to the recent setback and to continue seeking to 
improve their relationship will be helpful.  It would be 
useful, for example, for the Egyptian MFA to encourage the 
Iraqis to send th 
eir delegation sooner rather than later.  End Comment. 
 
7.  (U) REO HILLA, REO BASRA, REO MOSUL, and REO KIRKUK, 
minimize considered. 
Satterfield