VZCZCXRO6333
PP RUEHBC RUEHDE RUEHIHL
DE RUEHKUK #0130/01 2011357
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P R 201357Z JUL 06
FM REO KIRKUK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0692
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0654
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUEHKUK/REO KIRKUK 0720

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KIRKUK 000130 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL:  7/20/2016 
TAGS: PGOV PINS PTER PREL KISL IZ IR TU
SUBJECT: KIRKUK ARAB LEADERS DENOUCE PLAN TO RETURN ARABS TO THE 
SOUTH 
 
KIRKUK 00000130  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
CLASSIFIED BY: Jim Bigus, PRT Team Leader, POL, Department of 
State. 
REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 
 
 
¶1.  (C) INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY:  Several Kirkuk Arab leaders 
including 
Sunni and Shia representatives criticized plans to return Kirkuk 
Arabs 
to the south.  They agreed that while many Arabs have already 
left, it 
was primarily due to discrimination, persecution, and arrests. 
They 
stated that Kurdish political parties were paying salaries to 
poor Arab 
families as enticement to relocate.  Finally, they discussed a 
new group 
formed in Baghdad called "Kirkuk for Iraqis" that was headed by 
former 
Prime minister Ja'afri that plans to lobby Iraqi politicians, 
Turkey, 
and Iran in reference to Kirkuk's future. END INTRODUCTION AND 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) IPAO met with Ahmed Al-Ubaydi, the Kirkuk Head of the 
Iraqi 
Republican Gathering (IRG) and Coordinator of the Arab 
Consultative 
Council, the Sunni Arab umbrella organization in Kirkuk; Sheik 
Abdul 
Razaq Nawa Al-Ubaydi, head of the Ubaydi tribe in Kirkuk and vice 
president of the United Arab Front; and Office of the Martyr 
Sadr (OMS) 
representative Dr. Abdul Karim Khalifa al-Hassan on July 10 to 
discuss 
the implementation of article 140 in Kirkuk. 
 
ARABS WILL FIGHT IF KIRKUK JOINS THE KRG 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Sheik Abdul Razaq Nawa Al-Ubaydi began the discussion 
by 
strongly stating that he was from Kirkuk and lamented current 
ethnic 
tensions in the city.  He agreed that many Arabs have already 
fled to 
the south but that was primarily due to abuse, discrimination, 
persecution, and arrests.  He specifically noted the negative 
effect on 
the community of arresting Arabs and sending them to the KRG 
where "they 
are lost", do not receive due process, and their families were 
not told 
of their status.  Sheik Ubaydi stated that his children and 
grandchildren were born in Kirkuk, this was his home, and he 
would stay 
and fight if that's what it takes.  He, and many like him, were 
currently cooperating with the local government but he noted 
that he 
would be "terrorist #1" if the Arabs were forced out of Kirkuk. 
 
CITIZENS SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO MOVE FREELY WITHOUT COERSION 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  OMS representative Dr. Hassan stated that all 
citizens in 
Iraq should be free to move and live without discrimination 
throughout 
the country.  He used the United States as an example and felt 
that 
enticing people with money was as bad as forcing people to move. 
 He 
noted that the Kurdish political parties were paying salaries to 
poor 
Arab families and coaching them to act as representatives of the 
Kirkuk 
Arab population.  The Arabs who were paid used distorted 
statistics 
supplied by the Kurds and were not representative of "anything 
but 
greed" according to Hassan.  He explained that most families 
that have 
moved have done so because of fear and hunger.  It was lack of 
opportunity and harassment coupled with promises of payment that 
were 
encouraging citizens to say they want to move.  According to 
Hassan, 
"Bremer was smart when he wrote the TAL, he recognized that 
Kirkuk needs 
to be an independent province".  He also noted that claims of 
 
KIRKUK 00000130  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
large 
numbers of Arabs wanting to leave Kirkuk were Kurdish lies. 
 
GROUP - "KIRKUK FOR IRAQIS" ORGANIZED 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (C)  IRG head Ahmed al-Ubaydi believes that the Kurdish 
dream for 
Kirkuk will never exist "unless all the Arabs in Kirkuk are 
killed".  He 
stated that the only reason the constitution was originally 
passed was 
because there was an agreement to re-open discussions on article 
¶140. 
He and a group of Sunni and Shia leaders from Kirkuk have been 
visiting 
Baghdad weekly to push for changes in the article 140 process. 
He noted 
that his group was also interested in talking to neighboring 
countries 
Turkey and Iran in the hope that they could have an impact on 
the Kirkuk 
negotiations. 
 
¶6.  (C)  Sheik Ubaydi said that the Sunni and Shia Arabs of 
Kirkuk were 
working on a plan for Kirkuk's future.  He described a Baghdad 
working 
group called "Kirkuk for Iraqis" headed by former Prime Minister 
Ja'afri. The group was in discussions with Iraqi politicians and 
planned 
to meet with Turkey and Iran.  He noted that it was only Hakim 
who 
supports this idea of original Arabs.  The Kirkuk for Iraqis 
group 
rejects the idea of original versus non-original Arabs in 
Kirkuk.   That 
is only Kurdish propaganda according to the Sheik.  Sheik Ubaydi 
is 
concerned that the Kurds and some of the Shia parties will make a 
federalism deal that will lead to the de facto division Iraq.  He 
believed this was an ominous outcome because "Kirkuk would go to 
the 
Kurds and Southern federalism only means the south will be part 
of Iran 
and all patriotic Iraqis hate Iran". 
 
BIOGRAPHIC NOTE 
--------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Sheik Abdul Razaq Nawa Al-Ubaydi came to Kirkuk from 
the south 
in 1960.  He is currently vice president of the Southern Tribe 
Council, 
vice president of the united Arab front and a member of the Arab 
council.  He patiently waits during discussions and when he 
speaks 
chooses his words carefully.  He has a calm demeanor and 
exhibits less 
of a tendency towards exaggerated rhetoric. 
 
COMMENT 
------- 
 
¶8. (C)  The Kirkuk Shia and Sunni groups feel abandoned by their 
brethren in the south on the Kirkuk question and are attempting 
to work 
together.  On the one hand they try to downplay their religious 
identities and attempt to strike a traditional pan-Arab posture. 
However, "we are all Arabs" is often interspersed with 
statements like 
"all Iraqis hate Iran".  With the reference to Hakim and the 
recruitment 
of Ja'afri to their cause it appears the group is attempting to 
capitalize on political differences in the Shia voting bloc. 
JBIGUS