US embassy cable - 03AMMAN1929

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 001929 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/26/2013 
TAGS: AEMR, AMGT, PREL, ASEC, CASC, CVIS, EFIN, ETRD, IZ, JO 
SUBJECT: TFIZO1: AMMAN SITREP 22 (4/01 1200 LOCAL) 
 
REF: A. (A) FBIS GMP20030331000233 
 
     B. (B) FBIS GMP200303331000231 
     C. (C) AMMAN 1898 
 
Classified By: DCM Gregory L. Berry for reasons 1.5 (B)(D). 
 
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General Overview 
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1. (C) The Embassy is operating on a normal schedule April 1. 
 Consular services are open.  Activities at the American 
Language Center remain suspended, and there is only 
restricted activity by FSN's at the Peace Corps office. 
Movements of American staff remain restricted. 
 
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Consular Issues 
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2. (C) The Embassy received information from the Department 
that a group of 13 Amcit peace activists affiliated with the 
group "Voices in the Wilderness" would be departing Baghdad 
for Amman on the morning of April 1 via three minibuses. 
This information has been passed to Task Force West (TF-W) in 
the Embassy. 
 
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GOJ Actions/Statements 
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3. (U) King Abdullah and Queen Rania offered condolences 
March 31 to the families of the five Jordanians killed in two 
separate incidents in Iraq.  All Jordanian dailies provided 
page one, above the fold, coverage of this event in their 
April 1 editions.  According to the official press reports, 
the King "reiterated Jordan's rejection of the war on Iraq 
and his deep concern for the fate of innocent civilians -- 
the victims of the ongoing war." 
 
4. (U) In response to press reports that British troops had 
discovered an arms cache near Basra marked "Jordan Armed 
Forces, the government-affiliated Jordan Times April 1 quoted 
Minister of Information Mohammed al-Adwan as saying "we 
cannot confirm that this information is accurate.  And if any 
old stocks are found, they certainly date back to the period 
when there was no embargo on Iraq and consequently no embargo 
on shipments of military equipment." 
 
5. (U) The Jordanian Arabic daily al-Arab al-Yawm reported in 
its March 31 edition an interview by FM Muasher with the 
al-Arabia Satellite television station in which Muasher 
reiterated again publicly that "Jordanian airspace is not 
open to U.S. aircraft" and reaffirmed that "the presence of 
U.S. forces in Jordan is for training and defense purposes 
and that Jordan would not be a platform for launching any 
attacks from its territory against Iraq."  Muasher also 
asserted that "contacts between the Jordanian and Iraqi 
governments are continuing" pointing to the "230 Jordanian 
trucks carrying goods and medicines that have gone to Baghdad 
since the start of military operations."  Muasher stated as 
well that Jordanian elections "would be held on the date the 
government has fixed." (ref A) 
 
6. (C) The Jordanian Arabic daily al-Dustur reported that an 
unnamed Iraqi diplomat told the paper that "his country 
started to supply Jordan once again with crude oil and fuel 
oil as of yesterday after resolving technicalities that had 
prevented the loading of Jordanian oil tankers."  The Iraqi 
diplomat claimed that "a number of Jordanian oil tankers 
arrived at an oil and fuel loading point west of Baghdad 
yesterday and were loaded as usual." (ref B)  It should be 
noted that the assertion of the quoted Iraqi diplomat runs 
counter to the information the Ambassador received from 
Minister of Information Mohammed al-Adwan in a private 
conversation March 30, in which al-Adwan said that seven 
Jordanian oil tank trucks had been dispatched to Iraq but had 
returned to Jordan empty and that Jordan would make no 
further attempts to import Iraqi crude. (ref C)  The Foreign 
Minister assured the Ambassador on April 1, that he would 
watch carefully any developments in this issue; he knew of no 
new plans to lift Iraqi crude and would alert the Ambassador 
should he hear otherwise. "There will be no surprises." 
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Security 
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7. (C) No new issues. 
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Economic and Trade Developments 
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8. (C) No new issues. 
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Refugee/Humanitarian Issues 
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9. (SBU) The Jordan-Iraq border remains open.  UNHCR reports 
that six TCNs crossed into Jordan from Iraq overnight March 
31/April 1 and one person with document problems remains in 
no-man's land at the border.  Separately, IOM officials asked 
refcoord to postpone today's planned monitoring trip to the 
Ruweished transit camp.  Refcoord will report details septel. 
 
10. (C) According to UNHCR, Reuters carried a news report 
overnight that US military forces had taken over the Iraqi 
side of the Trebil border crossing into Jordan.  GOJ border 
officials told UNHCR this morning that Iraqi officials 
remained in control of the Iraqi side of the border crossing 
but that US military forces "possibly" could be 60 km from 
the border crossing. 
 
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Press 
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11. (U) No new issues. 
GNEHM