US embassy cable - 05ABUDHABI4828

S E C R E T ABU DHABI 004828 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, S/CT, EB/ESC 
NSC FOR ZARATE 
TREASURY FOR GLASER, MURDEN, AND HEFFERNAN 
MANAMA FOR OFAC ATTACHE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/27/2015 
TAGS: KTFN, PTER, EFIN, AE 
SUBJECT: PROPOSAL FOR A U.S.-UAE JOINT TERRORIST FINANCE 
COORDINATING COMMITTEE 
 
REF: SECSTATE 208617 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Michele J. Sison for reasons 1.4 (b & d). 
 
1. (S) On November 26, Ambassador and Econchief met with 
Central Bank Governor Sultan Nasser Al-Suwaidi and the head 
of the Central Bank's Anti-Money Laundering and Suspicious 
Cases Unit, Abdulrahim Al-Awadi, to discuss reftel proposal 
for the establishment of a Joint Terrorist Finance 
Coordinating Committee.  Al-Suwaidi welcomed the document 
saying that he would give it his close consideration.  He 
said that the UAEG would need to discuss the proposal 
internally in order to be able to provide appropriate input 
to shaping the proposal, and promised to get back to the 
Ambassador with his thoughts.  Al-Suwaidi welcomed the fact 
that the proposal focused on training cooperation, noting 
that the UAE had been chosen to take the lead on MENA/FATF 
training in three key areas: Hawala (informal money 
remittances), Cash Couriers, and Charities. 
 
2. (S) Turning the discussion to the regulation of charities, 
Al-Suwaidi said that the government's focus should be on 
ensuring that funds are not misused rather than on the 
identity of donors.  He explained that -- under Islam -- 
donations were a private matter.  He stressed that it would 
be both more efficient and more culturally sensitive to focus 
efforts on ensuring that funds went where they were supposed 
to rather than to expend efforts to try and identify all of 
the donors.  He mentioned that he had discussed his views on 
charities with Treasury U/S Levey on the margins of the 
IMF/WB annual meetings in Washington in September.  Al-Awadi 
noted that the governor's views were shared by other 
countries in the GCC. 
 
3. (S) Al-Suwaidi also stressed that charities needed to be 
handled with sensitivity and that "indiscriminate" freezing 
of assets would be counterproductive.  He noted that the UAE 
had frozen the assets of charities "belonging to orphans in 
India" and had come under intense criticism for this action. 
We have requested a follow-up meeting with Governor 
Al-Suwaidi on December 10 to obtain UAEG interagency feedback 
on the proposal. 
SISON