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Diana T Fritz  06/05/2007 10:30:17 AM  From  DB/Inbox:  Search Results

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Text:                                                                      
                                                                           
      
CONFIDENTIAL

SIPDIS
TELEGRAM                                        February 11, 2003


To:       No Action Addressee                                    

Action:   Unknown                                                

From:     AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI (ABU DHABI 728 - PRIORITY)         

TAGS:     PREL                                                   

Captions: None                                                   

Subject:  UAE DEPUTY PM PANDERS TO PUBLIC           OPINION ON   
          IRAQ                                                   

Ref:      None                                                   
_________________________________________________________________
C O N F I D E N T I A L        ABU DHABI 00728

SIPDIS
CXABU:
    ACTION: POL 
    INFO:   DCM P/M ECON RSO AMB 

DISSEMINATION: POL
CHARGE: PROG

APPROVED: CDA:TEWILLIAMS
DRAFTED: POL:STWILLIAMS
CLEARED: NONE

VZCZCADI828
PP RUEHC RUEHDE RUCNRAQ RHEHNSC RUEAIIA
DE RUEHAD #0728 0420437
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 110437Z FEB 03
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
INFO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8364
RUEHDE/AMCONSUL DUBAI 2793
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC

C O N F I D E N T I A L ABU DHABI 000728 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/NGA AND NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/09/2013 
TAGS: PREL UN IZ TC
SUBJECT:  UAE DEPUTY PM PANDERS TO PUBLIC 
          OPINION ON IRAQ 
 
REF:  Abu Dhabi 676 
 
¶1. (U) Classified by Charge d'Affaires Thomas 
Williams for reasons 1.5 (B) and (D). 
 
¶2. (U) The Emirates News Agency reported 2/9 that UAE Deputy 
Prime Minister Shaykh Sultan Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan, on the 
margins of a meeting with visiting former UNSCOM inspector 
Scott Ritter, "stressed the need to allow the UN inspectors 
the opportunity to carry on their search for weapons of mass 
destruction in Iraq."  Sultan was also quoted as saying "the 
region cannot tolerate another war which may result in a 
catastrophe of unpredictable magnitude."  The Deputy PM, who 
is also UAE President Shaykh Zayid's second eldest son, used 
this opportunity to call for a lifting of the international 
sanctions on Iraq which he labeled "non-humanitarian" and 
"the causes (sic) of (the) death of thousands of innocent 
Iraqis and of (the) demolition of Iraq's economy and 
infrastructure."  Finally, Sultan called on the 
international community to "apply pressure on Israel to stop 
its frenzied war against the Palestinian people." 
 
¶3. (U) Ritter's 2/8 lecture at the Sultan Bin Zayid- 
sponsored, Arab League-associated, Zayid Center for 
Coordination and Follow-Up received widespread, front-page 
coverage in the UAE press (reftel).  Ritter, who charged 
that the USG was in violation of international law, was 
quoted as saying that more than 95 percent of Iraq's WMD 
have been destroyed.  He claimed that the photographs 
presented by the Secretary during his 2/5 UNSC presentation 
were taken during the Iran-Iraq war.  As we previously 
reported, Ritter went out of his way to pan the Secretary's 
presentation, claiming that the USG charges are "inaccurate" 
and that Iraq had only one anthrax lab, which was 
"completely eliminated and destroyed" in 1996.  Ritter 
complained that he had been "interrogated by the FBI" who 
"put a lot of pressure on me and accused me of spying for 
Iraq" following his latest Iraq visit.  He then launched 
into a wholesale attack on U.S. policy, comparing it to "a 
car driven by a drunk driver, who is driving aimlessly and 
pushing himself to a disaster." 
 
¶4. (C) Comment:  As we noted reftel, UAE Armed Forces Chief 
of Staff Muhammad Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan and Information 
Minister Abdullah Bin Zayid Al-Nahyan both privately 
welcomed the Secretary's presentation.  Their elder half- 
brother Sultan is the most outspoken of Zayid's sons and 
often does not coordinate his statements with the rest of 
the leadership; we have been bluntly informed on at least 
one occasion that Sultan's remarks "do not reflect UAEG 
views."  Nevertheless, Sultan frequently reflects popular 
sentiment and he is well aware that the overwhelming 
majority of Emiratis (71 percent according to a recent 
confidential poll) are against military action in Iraq. 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WILLIAMS