US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD4344

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 004344 
 
SIPDIS 
 
CENTCOM FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/21/2015 
TAGS: IZ, PGOV, PINS, PREL 
SUBJECT: AMRE MUSA AND IRAQIS THINKING OF NOVEMBER MEETING 
ON NATIONAL ACCORD 
 
REF: BAGHDAD 
 
Classified By: PolCouns Robert Ford, reason 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
1.  (C)  Summary:  Arab League Secretary General Amre Musa 
told Charge October 21 evening that he hopes to hold an 
initial conference in Cairo in mid-November for Iraqi 
political factions aimed at facilitating national 
reconciliation.  This initial meeting should lead to a 
larger meeting in Baghdad.  These meetings would include 
hard-line Sunni Arab rejectionists, such as the Muslim 
Ulema Council and Arab nationalists.  Musa accepted 
Charge's point that these meetings should encourage broader 
participation in the political process but not signal a 
return of another Sunni Arab ruling clique.  Foreign 
Minister Zebari told Charge later October 21 that the idea 
of a national political conference brokered by the Arab 
League was fine if limited to Iraqi political 
groups, and include neither the Iraqi Government nor 
foreign observers.  End Summary. 
 
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MUSA CONFIDENT OF HIS CONFERENCE IDEA 
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2.  (C)  Saying he saw a better mood among the Iraqi political 
forces, Arab League Secretary General Amre Musa is moving 
ahead 
with two conferences to generate an Arab League-brokered 
national "accord."  Musa told Charge the evening of October 21 
that the Arab League in Cairo would host an initial 
meeting would be held in mid-November among key Iraqi 
political 
factions.  A larger meeting would follow among all the 
political forces.  Musa readily agreed with Charge's point 
that 
the larger conference would need to be in Baghdad. 
 
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SUNNI HARD-LINERS SOFTENING ? 
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3.  (C)  Amre Musa said he found even hard-line Sunni Arab 
rejectionists, like Shaykh Harith ad-Dhari from the Muslim 
Ulema Council, and Jawad al-Khalisi from the Founding 
Conference ('mu'tamar at-ta'seesi) as well as Arab 
nationalists 
like Subhi Abdel Hamid would be  willing to participate in 
a broad meeting.  He said Dhari still has a list of 
objections to policies underway in Iraq ("You know them," he 
stated.)  Dhari has agreed not to insist on preconditions for 
the Ulema Council's participation.  Musa was certain that 
these heretofore rejectionists would join in the December 
national elections if they received the right encouragement. 
 
4.  (C)  Charge said the Arab League initiative would be 
useful if it encouraged all Iraqis to participate in the 
next elections.  He cautioned that the conference was not the 
place for Dhari to try to negotiate the withdrawal of 
Coalition forces; the Iraqi Government should be responsible 
for those discussions.  Charge urged Musa to stay on the 
theme he had used at the October 21 iftar:  the "old Iraq" 
is gone and the "new Iraq" would stay and merited 
support. The Arab League initiative must be clearly 
understood not to be aiming for the return of a Sunni Arab 
clique to power; rather it should be about Sunni Arabs 
having a share of power by participating in the political 
process.  Charge also urged Musa to open an Arab League 
office, and Musa said he would do so. 
 
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FOREIGN MINISTER WANTS IRAQI POLITICIANS ONLY 
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5.  (C)  Separately, Foreign Minister Zebari told Charge that 
Musa's meetings had the right tone.  He said he was 
recommending that the Arab League not invite Iraqi 
Government officials per se.  Instead since these meetings 
were intended to cement an accord among political forces, 
he told Musa to invite the political groups in the Iraqi 
National Assembly, and groups from outside the Assembly. 
Zebari said he was also discouraging Musa from the idea of 
inviting foreign observers from neighboring states, the UN 
and the Coalition.  Zebari speculated that the larger 
conference would take place in January around the same 
time as the new government is formed. 
 
6.  (C)  Musa asked Charge about the Mehlis report which he 
had not seen.  Charge said the report's contents were 
very serious and pledged to get Musa a copy while he was 
still in Baghdad. 
 
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Comment 
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7.  (C)  At the iftar hosted by the MFA October 21 we still 
heard suspicions about Musa and his mission.  A Kurdish 
politician and cabinet member muttered sourly that he 
didn't trust Musa who, he claimed, had always been too 
close to Saddam.  A staffer with Shia Islamist Abdel Mehdi 
noted that Musa's post-meal speech called for a 
"united, free and prosperous" Iraq without mentioning the 
word "democratic."  This staffer noted that at least Musa 
had taken the point that many Iraqi political groups in 
power don't believe in national reconciliation.  They will 
not sit with Baathists and terrorists.  Musa has found that 
the term "accord" sells better in Baghdad.  Musa on October 
22 will be in Najaf trying to sell his conference idea to 
Ayatollah Sistani and Muqtada as-Sadr before heading to 
Kurdistan later in the day. 
Satterfield