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Diana T Fritz  08/27/2006 05:03:37 PM  From  DB/Inbox:  Search Results

Cable 
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C O N F I D E N T I A L        ABU DHABI 05038

SIPDIS
CXABU:
    ACTION: POL
    INFO:   DAO USLO RSO PAO AMB DCM MEPI P/M ECON

DISSEMINATION: POL
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: CDA:MRQUINN
DRAFTED: POL:JFMAYBURY
CLEARED: NONE

VZCZCADI469
OO RUEHC RUEHZM RUEHDE RHEHNSC
DE RUEHAD #5038 3481330
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
O 141330Z DEC 05
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2761
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI 5638
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 005038 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/ARPI, NEA/I AND S/I 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/13/2010 
TAGS: PREL GCC IZ AE
SUBJECT: ABU DHABI READYING FOR GCC SUMMIT, DEC. 18-19 
 
REF: STATE 224430 
 
Classified By: CDA MARTIN R. QUINN, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). 
 
¶1. (C) On December 14, Embassy delivered the "Secretary,s 
Oral Message to the GCC Foreign Ministers" to Minister of 
State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed's Office in 
advance of the GCC Ministerial scheduled to take place in Abu 
Dhabi a day before the opening of the December 18-19 GCC 
Summit. 
 
¶2. (U) As preparations intensify for the Summit, UAE 
President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan issued the following 
statement in support of the GCC: "The UAE is keen to back the 
Council's march in order to help member states coordinate and 
unify their stances and continue consultations at regional 
and international forums as an integrated organization taking 
care of its interests and those of its people." 
 
¶3. (SBU) Our usual MFA and MinState for Foreign Affairs 
contacts were working full tilt to prepare the leadership for 
what we understand will be an ambitious agenda, although we 
do not have the precise details of the agenda or the six GCC 
members' delegations yet.  According to press reports, the 
GCC's six leaders will discuss recommendations by GCC 
ministers of labor to limit foreigners' employment contracts 
to six years with the aim of preserving the long-term 
interests of Gulf states in maintaining a non-permanent force 
of expatriate labor.  The Summit will also discuss all the 
political, military, security, and economic recommendations 
that have been submitted by various ministerial councils, 
according to a statement attributed to GCC SYG Abdul Rahman 
Al Atiyyah. 
 
¶4. (SBU) As for the UAE's capital city, Abu Dhabi, it is 
making last-minute preparations to host the GCC Summit at the 
seven-star Emirates Palace Hotel.  Abu Dhabi had hoped to 
host the GCC Summit in December 2004, but the late UAE 
President Sheikh Zayed's fragile and deteriorating health in 
the months leading up to the Summit persuaded the leadership 
to allow the Kingdom of Bahrain to play host.  As it turned 
out, Sheikh Zayed died in early November 2004.  In contrast 
to last year, when the city was somber and in mourning over 
Sheikh Zayed's death, the city of Abu Dhabi is now aglow with 
lights, and motorists are discovering newly planted trees and 
flowers on boulevards leading to the Emirates Palace Hotel. 
 
¶5. (U) The GCC Summit will get under way just as thousands of 
Iraqi expatriates living in the UAE and in neighboring Gulf 
countries complete three days of voting to elect 
representatives of Iraq's National Assembly.  The UAE was one 
of 15 countries outside Iraq in which Iraqi expatriates were 
able to cast their votes.  Iraqis were able to find fully 
staffed (and internationally monitored) polling places in Abu 
Dhabi and in Dubai. 
QUINN