US embassy cable - 05MANAMA1608

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MANAMA 001608 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
FOR NEA, NEA/ARPI, NEA/PI, EUR, EAP, WHA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL, KDEM, KMPI, PHUM, ECON, BA 
SUBJECT: MFA BRIEFS AMBASSADORS ON FORUM ARRANGEMENTS 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified; please protect accordingly.  Not 
for Internet distribution. 
 
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Summary 
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1.  (SBU) The Ministry of Foreign Affairs October 31 held a 
meeting with ambassadors from countries expected to attend 
the November 11-12 Forum for the Future conference in Manama 
and presented them with copies of the agendas for the 
November 11 Senior Officials meeting and November 12 
Ministers meeting.  They also distributed copies of the draft 
Bahrain Declaration.  MFA Assistant Under Secretary Shaikh 
Abdul Aziz said he expected 32 or 33 foreign ministers and 
several other ministers and deputy ministers to participate 
in the conference.  He said the strongest message to emerge 
from the Forum should be that civil society representatives 
are fully engaged as equals with governments on the issue of 
reform.  He noted there will be one GOB-sanctioned "parallel" 
forum organized by NGOs to deal with regional reform issues 
other than those covered at the official Forum.  He proposed 
distributing the findings of the parallel meeting to the 
ministers.  End Summary. 
 
2.  (SBU) MFA Assistant Under Secretary for Coordination and 
Follow-Up, and lead Forum for the Future (FfF) coordinator, 
Shaikh Abdul Aziz bin Mubarak Al Khalifa October 31 chaired a 
meeting on Forum arrangements for ambassadors of all 
countries invited to and planning to participate in the 
conference.  Some 35 ambassadors and other senior diplomats 
attended (including the Syrian ambassador to Bahrain).  The 
MFA distributed updated versions of the agendas for the 
November 11 Senior Officials meeting and the November 12 
Ministers meeting.  (Note:  Embassy faxed the agendas to 
NEA/ARPI and NEA/PI.) 
 
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Over Thirty Ministers to Attend 
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3.  (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz said he expected 32 or 33 foreign 
ministers to attend the Forum as heads of delegation and one 
or two deputy FMs.  The French Education minister will lead 
his delegation.  Several other ministers are expected to 
attend as members of their national delegations.  He 
requested that ambassadors query their ministers about their 
preferences for making an intervention during the meeting on 
November 12.  He noted that the Bahraini Embassy in London 
had previously forwarded this request to relevant embassies 
in London.  He explained that only the foreign ministers from 
the United States, Bahrain, UK, Jordan, and Morocco would 
participate in the closing press conference.  All heads of 
delegation plus two others would be invited to attend an 
opening dinner the evening of November 11, and there would be 
a group photo for attending ministers before the conference 
opens the morning of November 12. 
 
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Civil Society As Equal Partner 
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4.  (SBU)  Shaikh Abdul Aziz said that the strongest message 
to emerge from the Forum should be that civil society 
representatives are fully engaged with governments on the 
issue of reform.  For the first time, NGOs are sitting at the 
table as equals to government ministers.  Governments need to 
hear from the NGOs about their priorities for reform and how 
these reforms should be implemented.  He noted there will be 
a Parallel Forum for the Future conference November 7-8, 
organized by Bahraini human rights activist Abdul Nabi Al 
Ekry.  This conference conforms to the idea of the FfF - that 
is, regional reform issues - but does not duplicate Forum 
topics.  Bahraini and UK government representatives intend to 
receive the findings of the parallel conference on the 11th 
and distribute them to ministers on the 12th. 
 
5.  (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz stated that there likely will be 
other competing meetings taking place at the time of the 
Forum, but the Bahraini government does not sanction these. 
Many will deal with internal politics in Bahrain and other 
countries in the area, which does not conform to the regional 
focus of the Forum.  He warned that representatives of these 
conferences will likely try to gain access to G-8 ministers 
during their stay in Manama. 
 
6.  (SBU) The agenda for the November 11 Senior Officials 
meeting (distributed November 1 to G-8 ambassadors) calls for 
a full day session, chaired by Shaikh Abdul Aziz.  He asked 
ambassadors to identify their heads of delegation for the 
meeting and the officials' preferred points for intervention. 
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Finalizing Texts 
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7.  (SBU) Shaikh Abdul Aziz noted that the draft text of the 
Bahrain Declaration had been distributed to capitals about 
ten days earlier.  The deadline for providing input was 
November 7.  He said select Forum participants were working 
on the text of the Chairman's Summary and the charter for the 
Foundation for the Future. 
 
8.  (SBU) He explained that the GOB was arranging four 
90-minute roundtable sessions dealing with various Forum 
issues to be covered by the press on November 11.  The 
sessions will feature senior officials from governments 
wishing to participate.  The GOB had not yet specified the 
topics for the roundtables, but asked for input from the 
ambassadors on who from their delegations would like to 
participate. 
 
MONROE