US embassy cable - 03SANAA1675

S E C R E T SANAA 001675 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/09/2013 
TAGS: ECON, EFIN, IZ, PREL, PTER, YM, UNSC 
SUBJECT: NO IRAQI GOVERNMENT ASSETS IN YEMEN 
 
REF: SECSTATE 186972 
 
Classified By: Classified by A/DCM S. Alexander for reasons 1.5 (b) and 
 (d). 
 
1. (C)  Deputy Minister of Finance Ahmed Ghaleb and External 
Relations Director Ibrahim al-Nahari told Pol/econoff on July 
7 that there were no/no Iraqi government assets in Yemen in 
response to reftel demarche.  Al-Nahari explained that the 
only Iraqi Government assets in Yemen were several cargo 
boats moored in Aden harbor during the 1991 Gulf War. 
However, al-Nahari said that these boats became a liability 
to the people of Yemen, and a Yemeni court case awarded 8 
million USD from Iraq  to the ROYG to compensate for their 
upkeep. Having gained possession through the court case, the 
ROYG sold the boats to Jordan at a two million dollar loss. 
Therefore, the ROYG believes that the Iraqis owe the people 
of Yemen the two million dollars. 
 
2. (SN/F) Turning to non-government Iraqi assets, Al-Nahari 
stated that the one Iraqi owned bank in Yemen, the Raffadin 
bank, only holds private citizens' funds. Referring to U/S 
Taylor's April 1 call to Central Bank Sub-Governor for 
Control Mr. Abdullah Ulafi, al-Nahari said that the ROYG had 
already told the Treasury Department that only private funds 
are held at the Raffadin bank. Ghaleb added that he believed 
that Raffadin only holds about 20 million Riyals (about 
110,00 USD at the 07/09/03 exchange rate) in its reserves. 
 
3. (U)  Al-Nahari said that an official response would be 
sent by fax to Treasury Secretary Snow shortly. 
HULL