VZCZCXRO7154
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHKUK RUEHMOS
DE RUEHKU #1622/01 1281409
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 081409Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4338
INFO RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001622 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR NEA/IR AND NEA/ARP, LONDON FOR TSOU, PARIS FOR 
ZEYA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/07/2016 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL IR KU KUWAIT IRAN RELATIONS
SUBJECT: ARAB IRANIAN COMMUNITY IN KUWAIT CONCERNED ABOUT 
GROWING IRANIAN PRESSURE, WELCOMES U.S. FORCES 
 
Classified By: DCM Matt Tueller for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 
 
¶1.  (C) On May 6, Poloff met with five activists from the 
Arab Iranian (Ahwazi) expatriate community in Kuwait at their 
request: Adulkhaligh Delavi, Sabah Haidary, Atiya Savari, 
Naji Sawaeidy, and Hosain Ahwazy, who currently lives in 
London.  (Comment: Poloff was in a listening mode and did not 
comment on their requests for support or their suggestions 
that U.S. forces would be welcomed in the Ahwaz region of 
Iran.  End comment.)  According to Delavi, Ahwazis account 
for "60-65% of the 50,000-60,000 Iranians living in Kuwait," 
the largest Ahwazi community outside Iran.  Delavi said he 
and other Ahwazi activists raised substantial money in Kuwait 
to support Ahwazi organizations operating inside Iran with 
"the full knowledge of the GOK"; he did not specify which 
organizations they supported.  Ahwazis in Kuwait also provide 
material aid and legal assistance to families of jailed 
Ahwazis in Iran, and assist in distributing information on 
their persecution.  Delavi admitted that some Ahwazi 
organizations supported violent resistance against the 
Iranian regime, but stressed that he and the other activists 
did not. 
 
Growing Iranian Pressure 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (C) Since last year, the Iranian government has 
increasingly cracked down on Ahwazi opposition groups and 
their supporters, Delavi alleged.  Describing the worsening 
situation of Ahwazis living in Iran, Delavi said they were 
forced to choose Persian names and send their children to 
schools taught in Farsi, and were subject to resettlement. 
According to Delavi and Ahwazy, approximately 200,000 Ahwazis 
had been moved out of an area along the Iranian bank of the 
Shatt Al-Arab waterway by authorities, allegedly to make room 
for a planned "industrial zone."  Delavi added that the GOI 
was also resettling ethnic Persians among Ahwazis, apparently 
in an attempt to shift the demography of the area. 
 
¶3.  (C) Delavi claimed Mohammed Baqer Thu Al-Qader, the 
Undersecretary for Security at the Iranian Ministry of 
Interior, pressured the GOK to stop Ahwazis living in Kuwait 
from sending assistance to Ahwazi organizations in Iran 
during his visit to Kuwait in March.  Delavi and Ahwazy said 
they hoped the USG would convince the GOK that the Ahwazi 
community in Kuwait was not a threat.  They were particularly 
concerned that the memorandum of understanding signed between 
Kuwait and Iran during Al-Qader's visit would lead to the 
arrest and deportation of Ahwazi activists in Kuwait.  They 
also worried that the GOK might try to use Ahwazi activists 
as a bargaining chip with the GOI, agreeing to deport them as 
part of a deal with the Iranians.  "We are not the bad guys. 
We are on your side," they stressed. 
 
"National Federalism" or Separate Nation? 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (C) Delavi and Ahwazy said their ultimate goal was the 
creation of a "secular, democratic, and federal" government 
in Iran based on ethnic nationalities and geography.  (Note: 
At one point, Ahwazy corrected Poloff's reference to the 
Ahwazi in Iran as a "community," saying, "No, it is the 
Ahwazi nation in Iran.  There is an Ahwazy community in 
Kuwait."  End note.)  "Iran is composed of multiple nations," 
Ahwazy explained, adding that Iran's different ethnic groups 
had recently joined to form the "Iranian Federal Congress 
(IFC)," whose website 
(www.iranfederal.org/eng/report/eng.html) lists "the 
Democratic Solidarity Party of Ahwaz" as one of the seven 
groups participating in the IFC. 
 
¶5.  (C) The Ahwazi activists were at times annoyed and 
impatient with U.S. policy towards Iran.  Davali questioned 
whether U.S. officials were even aware Iran had ethnic 
minorities.  He also criticized the Voice of America (VOA) 
for broadcasting only in Farsi and for not reporting on human 
rights violations against Iran's ethnic minorities.  Davali 
added that the director of the VOA's Farsi broadcasts was 
"the biggest Persian Nazi I know."  Highlighting oil and gas 
resources in the Ahwaz area, Ahwazy suggested U.S. forces 
invading from Iraq could easily cut it off from the 
government in Tehran.  Davali noted that Ahwazis in Iran were 
learning English to be able to welcome U.S. troops. 
 
********************************************* * 
For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/?cable s 
 
Visit Kuwait's Classified Website: 
 
KUWAIT 00001622  002 OF 002 
 
 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/kuwait/ 
********************************************* * 
LEBARON