VZCZCXRO3841
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHRL #0977 1340628
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 140628Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8268
INFO RUEHNO/USMISSION USNATO PRIORITY 9538
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEHGB/AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD PRIORITY 0197
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 0133
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS BERLIN 000977 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: MARR MASS MOPS PREL PTER NATO IZ GM
SUBJECT: Germany and Iraq Announce Resumption of Training for Iraqi 
Military in the UAE 
 
REF:  Berlin 00911 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: After a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart Jassim 
al-Obeidi in Berlin May 9, DefMin Jung announced that Germany will 
train 350 Iraqi soldiers from a transportation battalion in the UAE 
this year.  The Bundeswehr also plans to train an Iraqi medical unit 
in Germany.  As part of the training, Germany will provide the 
Iraqis with 120 trucks and 33 ambulances.  END SUMMARY. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Provisions of the Training Cooperation 
--------------------------------------- 
¶2. (SBU) According to an MOD source, the Bundeswehr will ship 120 
trucks to the UAE, and train one Iraqi transportation battalion on 
the equipment from October to December 2007.  About 60 Bundeswehr 
soldiers and interpreters will be involved in training.  In 
addition, the Bundeswehr will train Iraqi medical soldiers in 
Germany, and later transfer 33 ambulances to them in the UAE.  Both 
the ambulances and the trucks will be donations for the armed 
forces.  A total of 350 Iraqi soldiers will be trained under the 
agreement. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Trilateral Training Outside NATO Framework 
------------------------------------------- 
¶3. (SBU) MOD officials stress that the training is currently a 
trilateral arrangement between Germany, the UAE and Iraq.  While it 
is closely coordinated with the NATO Training Mission in Iraq 
(NTM-I), it is not technically part of that operation.  Other 
countries, such as Belgium have stated interest in joining Germany's 
UAE training program. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
History of Germany's Training assistance 
------------------------------------------ 
¶4. (SBU) In 2005, Germany trained an Iraqi battalion of combat 
engineers (350 military personnel), but the training program was not 
conducted in 2006 because of problems with financing the travel of 
Iraqi trainees to and from the UAE.  As reported reftel, those 
problems have apparently now been resolved. 
 
¶5. (SBU) In addition, since 2004, the Bundeswehr has provided 
training for about 100 soldiers at its training facilities in 
Germany, including a selected number (3-4 soldiers) at its military 
academy in Hamburg.  Most courses are of short duration (a few 
weeks), but the courses at the military academy are a year or 
longer. 
TIMKEN, JR