US embassy cable - 05CAIRO6673

C O N F I D E N T I A L CAIRO 006673 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/29/2015 
TAGS: PREL, PGOV, MOPS, PTER, EG, IZ, Arab League, Iraqi 
SUBJECT: PRESSING THE ARAB LEAGUE TO SUPPORT IRAQI 
CONSTITUTION 
 
REF: E-MAILS FROM NEA/I 
 
Classified by Charge Stuart Jones for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (C) Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa has so far 
been marginally helpful on building political support for 
Iraq's new constitution, despite USG and British requests for 
his assistance in reaching out to key Iraq Sunni figures.  In 
public, so far, Moussa has focused his attention on draft 
constitution language that deals with Iraq's "Arabness" - 
language he told reporters August 25 which had "triggered a 
state of discontent in Arab political circles."  Over the 
past several days, Moussa has been in touch with "a number of 
Arab officials" as well as Iraqi President Talabani and Prime 
Minister Jafari.  On August 28, following his meeting with 
permanent representatives to the Arab League to discuss the 
upcoming September 8 ministerial meeting in Cairo,  Moussa 
told reporters that he was satisfied with "positive" changes 
to the new Iraqi constitution. 
 
2.  (C) Our British Embassy colleagues demarched Moussa's 
Cabinet Chief of Staff Hesham Youssef, August 25, requesting 
Moussa to make public statements and/or contact influential 
Iraqi Sunni figures to encourage a successful completion of 
negotiations over the Iraqi constitution.  While the UK DCM 
told us that the demarche was received positively, it appears 
that Moussa has so far directed his public remarks on the 
constitution merely to the subject of Iraq's Arab character. 
 
3.  (C) Comment:  According to our AL contacts, Moussa 
continues to "keep his door open" to all Iraqis interested in 
meeting with him.  Iraqis that Moussa has met with in the 
past week include Dr. Hameed Gaood (brother of Talal Gaood), 
and Muzhir al-Dulaimi, both Iraqi Sunni political activists. 
Iraq's Ambassador to the Arab League, Raad al-Alusi, assures 
us that Iraq will feature prominently on the agenda of the 
coming AL ministerial, but tells us privately that Moussa 
will not lead with respect to building political support for 
Iraq's constitution.  We will have better luck continuing our 
efforts to reach out to key Arab leaders such as Egyptian 
President Mubarak.  The Secretary's August 27 call, we hope, 
will be followed up by GOE activism with key Iraqi Sunnis, as 
well as a more positive public diplomacy approach vis-a-vis 
the political process in Iraq.  We do not, however, expect 
Egyptian and Iraqi diplomatic relations to improve 
dramatically in the short-term, given the strains caused by 
the kidnapping and murder in Iraq of Egyptian Ambassador to 
Baghdad, Ihab Sherif, last June and general neuralgia toward 
Iraq's Shia and Kurdish leadership. 
 
 
Visit Embassy Cairo's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/cairo 
 
You can also access this site through the 
State Department's Classified SIPRNET website. 
 
JONES