US embassy cable - 03ABUDHABI3476

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ABU DHABI 003476 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARP, NEA/RA, NEA/NGA, IO/UNP, AND EB FOR 
JOHN FINN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL 07/27/03 
TAGS: EAID, PREL, PGOV, PHUM, IZ, TC 
SUBJECT:  TAKING STOCK OF UAE ASSISTANCE TO IRAQ 
 
REFS: A) STATE 214593 
      B) ABU DHABI 3423 
      C) ABU DHABI 2877 
 
1.  (U) Classified by Ambassador Marcelle M. Wahba, 
for reasons 1.5 (b) and (d). 
 
2.  (U) Summary.  UAE assistance to Iraq -- both 
pledged and delivered -- has been significant.  UAE 
Chief of Staff Shaykh Muhammad bin Zayid Al-Nahyan 
(MbZ) confirmed to the Ambassador in July that total 
UAE assistance to Iraq has exceeded $50 million, and 
he expects this figure to rise to USD $80 million by 
the end of 2003 (see ref B).  This figure obviously 
doesn't include the considerable private donations to 
Iraq provided by senior royal family members -- 
numbers for these individual contributions usually are 
not made public.  Post is aware, however, that UAE 
First Lady Shaykha Fatima donated USD $2 million to 
the UAE Red Crescent Authority in April for the Iraqi 
people. 
 
3.  (U) Summary continued.  The UAE Red Crescent 
Authority (RCA) has undertaken robust humanitarian 
operations within Iraq, as has the Shaykh Mohammed Bin 
Rashid Al-Maktoum Charity and Humanitarian Foundation 
(whose patron is the UAE Defense Minister and Dubai 
Crown Prince) in Dubai.  These two quasi-governmental 
charities currently serve as the umbrella 
organizations for the rest of the UAE's NGO's relief 
efforts in Iraq, and have largely coordinated their 
activities in Iraq with the Mission.  Itemizations of 
the UAE's contributions to Iraq are keyed to ref A. 
End summary. 
 
--------------------------- 
UAE Humanitarian Assistance 
--------------------------- 
 
4.  (U) The UAE Red Crescent Authority (RCA) Secretary 
General Sana'a Al-Kitbi recently provided Post with a 
running tally of the humanitarian supplies and 
services provided to the people of Iraq since November 
2002 (see ref C).  Among the many operations 
undertaken by the RCA in Iraq, the organization spent 
USD $826,000 in pre-war stockpiling of food and 
medical supplies to villages and hospitals throughout 
Iraq, USD $5.5 million in emergency humanitarian aid 
(more than 1700 tons of medical equipment, food 
parcels and water tankers) to Iraq during and 
immediately after the war, and donated a number of 
heavy trucks to aid other NGOs in Iraq with the 
distribution of their assistance. 
 
5.  (U) The RCA began an "air bridge" of humanitarian 
flights to Baghdad, Basrah, and Mosul in April to 
support Iraqi hospitals and dispatch about 255 tons of 
medicines, medical items, children's nutrients and 
other necessities.  As of June, the RCA had sponsored 
17 such flights at a cost of more than USD $1.6 
million.  Post receives notification from the RAMCC 
that these RCA flights to Iraq continue on an almost 
daily basis. 
 
6.  (U) The RCA has not yet estimated the total cost 
of evacuating in May nearly 40 wounded children and 
their parents to the UAE for medical treatment.  The 
Humanitarian Operations Center (HOC) in Kuwait asked 
the RCA to arrange for and cover all costs associated 
with the special medical evacuation flights -- the 
first of which was a presidential Amiri flight -- 
accommodations and food for the parents while in the 
UAE, all related medical treatment and rehabilitation, 
and a return trip home once the patients have 
recovered. 
 
7.  (U) The RCA also provided emergency food and 
shelter to hundreds of Iraqis who were stranded in 
Dubai at the onset of the war in Iraq.  The stranded 
Iraqis remained in Dubai until the beginning of June, 
at which time the RCA paid for the Iraqis to return to 
Iraq overland via Jordan. 
 
------------------------------------- 
UAE Reconstruction Activities In Iraq 
------------------------------------- 
 
8.  (U) The RCA continues to contribute millions of 
dollars to rebuild Iraq's infrastructure -- 
particularly Iraq's health and water and sanitation 
sectors.  The RCA built a water treatment plant with 
200,000-gallon capacity in Basrah, and has begun 
construction of three other water treatment plants 
with 25,000-gallon capacity in the surrounding areas. 
The UAE Red Crescent Authority continues to provide 
20,000 gallons a day of potable water to the residents 
of Basrah, according to press reports.  The RCA also 
donated a generator for the Saba Nissan water station 
on the Tigris River that provides clean water to 
approximately 1.5 million people. 
 
9.  (U) In May, the RCA began the complete renovation 
and refurbishment of six hospitals in Iraq.  A UAE 
medical team headed this effort, and remains in Iraq 
to manage the administration of the Shaykh Zayid 
Hospital in Baghdad -- which the RCA rehabilitated in 
April.  The RCA's hospital rehabilitation program has 
cost more than USD $12 million to date. 
 
---------------------------------- 
UAE Aids Iraq's Economic Recovery 
---------------------------------- 
 
10.  (C) The UAEG already has provided specific 
proposals for participation in Iraq's economic 
recovery.  UAE officials committed in writing to 
provide training to Iraqi Central Bank officials in 
banking operations, banking supervision and 
examination, and anti-money laundering detection and 
investigation.  Combating terrorist financing through 
its formal and informal financial networks has been a 
major goal of the UAEG since 2000, and an area in 
which the UAEG has made tremendous strides.  The UAE 
was the first Arab country to become a member of the 
elite Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, 
and could well serve as a model for Iraq's own 
financial system.  The UAEG also has offered to 
provide training in trade financing to Iraqi bankers. 
 
11.  (C) The Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) 
also has offered to help develop responsible fiscal 
and monetary policy in Iraq, carve out a supervisory 
role for the Iraq Central Bank, and help establish a 
liberalized trade regime that would lead to Iraq's 
eventual accession to the WTO.  The AMF has expertise 
in a broad range of economic topics, as well as a 
formal agreement with the WTO to provide training on 
trade-related issues to its Arab membership -- which 
includes Iraq. 
 
12.  (C) UAE officials have indicated that they could 
dispatch experts from the Abu Dhabi National Oil 
Company (ADNOC) to assist in the near term 
reconstruction of the Iraqi oil sector.  Although the 
UAE could assist the Iraqi Oil Ministry in oil 
exploration, refining, processing, distribution and 
management, Abu Dhabi realistically will be Baghdad's 
competitor in this sector over the long-term. 
 
------------------------------ 
Frozen Iraqi Assets In The UAE 
------------------------------ 
 
13.  (C) As usual, we have obtained exemplary 
cooperation from the UAE Central Bank regarding the 
freezing of assets related to the former Saddam regime 
in the UAE.  The UAEG confirmed in a May 6 conference 
call of the informal contact group on Iraq 
reconstruction that the UAE Central Bank is now 
managing the day-to-day operations of the single 
branch of Rafidain Bank in the UAE.  Rafidain Bank in 
the UAE has operated on a limited basis since the 1990 
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.  According to official UAE 
statistics, the bank maintains total assets of USD 
$18.8 million, USD $17.3 million of which are frozen 
in the United States and Germany.  The Governor 
recently told Econchief that, due to asset seizure in 
the United States, the capital adequacy requirements 
at the bank have dropped below legal limits and the 
UAEG would like to close the branch -- but will check 
with the USG before doing so. 
 
14.  (C) The UAE Central Bank Governor last week told 
Econchief that UAE authorities had not located 
significant assets related to the Saddam regime in the 
UAE.  The Bank had frozen a sum of money belonging to 
Iraqi Airways since Desert Storm, but has not yet 
transferred the assets to the Development Fund for 
Iraq.  The Central Bank is drafting a letter to 
Treasury Secretary Snow concerning these accounts. 
 
Wahba