VZCZCXYZ0001
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHYN #2090/01 3171140
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131140Z NOV 07
FM AMEMBASSY SANAA
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8395

UNCLAS SANAA 002090 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA/ARP FOR NATASHA FRANCESCHI; NEA/PI FOR BLAKE THORKELSON 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM PGOV KMPI YM
SUBJECT: THIRD FORUM FOR THE FUTURE PLANNING MEETING 
 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  Yemeni Prime Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohy 
Al-Dhabbi and German Ambassador to Yemen Michael 
Klor-Berchtold co-chaired the third Forum for the Future 
planning meeting in Sanaa on October 27.  NEA DAS Kent 
Patton, DRL DAS Erica Barks-Ruggles, NEA Foreign Affairs 
Officer Blake Thorkelson, and Embassy Sanaa APAO Megan 
Goodfellow participated.  Discussion focused on Forum 
logistics and agenda, the parallel civil society forum, the 
senior officials meeting, a potential BMENA secretariat, and 
a potential conflict with the Forum dates. 
 
LOGISTICS 
--------- 
 
¶2.  Yemeni Chief of Protocol Ambassador Ibrahim Saeed 
Al-Adoofi discussed logistical arrangements for the Forum. 
Each delegation will have seven seats (principle   six).  All 
heads of delegation will be housed in the Movenpick. 
Al-Dhabbi agreed to recommendations from Bahrain and the US 
that civil society representatives be more integrated with 
governments, and not marginalized in the main hall. 
 
OCTOBER 23 FORUM SUBMINISTERIAL 
------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  Participants reviewed the German summary of the October 
23 Forum subministerial in Berlin.  Moroccan BMENA 
coordinator Ambassador Youssef Amrani said that the event 
fostered good dialogue with civil society and noted the calls 
for a regional gender institute and a Helsinki-like process 
in the Middle East.  Egyptian BMENA Coordinator Ambassador 
Raouf Saad complained that NGO interventions had 
"overwhelmed" government delegates and called for a balance 
among governments and NGOs at the Forum.  Saad said that the 
Helsinki proposal reflected a lack of information and claimed 
that Italy and Russia had said that Helsinki was not a simple 
model that could be applied to the Middle East.  DAS Patton 
said that the Helsinki analogy cannot be too strict, but that 
the spirit of Helsinki is a pragmatic partnership with civil 
society.  Turkish Policy Planning Section Chief Timur 
Soylemez said it is time to put the theory of women's 
empowerment into practice with a gender institute.  Al-Dhabbi 
asked for a full proposal to which to react. 
 
CIVIL SOCIETY PARALLEL FORUM 
---------------------------- 
 
¶4.  Ezzedine Al-Asbahy of Yemen's Human Rights Information 
and Training Center (HRITC) discussed the 220-person Parallel 
Civil Society Forum to be held in Aden November 30-December 1 
(Note: The location of the Parallel Forum has since been 
changed to Sana'a.  End Note).  He said pointedly that the 
only funding for the meeting has come from the State 
Department and asked for other donors to provide more 
funding.  In preparing, HRITC has developed a regional and 
local preparatory committee.  The parallel meeting will issue 
a report at the Forum on the state of democracy in the 
region, focused on freedom of expression and the legal 
environment for NGOs.  HRITC has sent questionnaires to NGOs 
in all BMENA countries to assist in the preparation of the 
report.  The parallel meeting will include thematic workshops 
that will develop workplans.  HRITC wants ministers to 
endorse the workplans at the Forum and to fund them. 
Progress would be assessed at the 2008 Forum.  He called for 
a permanent working mechanism to support the Parallel Forum's 
work. 
 
¶5.  Raouf Saad of Egypt said he wanted to "correct" 
Al-Asbahy, that action plans should not be presented by NGOs 
and adopted by governments.  That is not a real partnership, 
he said.  Governments and NGOs may not see eye to eye, but 
they need to agree on a common purpose and cooperate without 
recrimination.  Amrani welcomed strong civil society 
participation and called for credible, representative NGOs to 
participate in the Forum.  He said that the reports are a 
good idea but asked the civil society groups to avoid 
confrontation.  Bahraini Director of Bilateral Relations Dr. 
Dhafer Al-Umran said that the democracy report should be 
regionally focused, not country-specific.  The Parallel Forum 
themes should complement, not duplicate, the Forum agenda, 
and should include more than just political issues.  Yemeni 
DFM Al-Dhabbi recommended that the meeting be held a few days 
earlier to give governments more time to review the report. 
He also said that the number of civil society representatives 
in the Forum would be the same as in Jordan, plus one. 
Al-Asbahy agreed that the report would not be negative, but 
would propose workplans with specific policy recommendations 
to be implemented.  He said that the dates could not be moved 
because HRITC did not have the funding to pay for the 
additional hotel nights for the delegation before the Forum. 
 
AGENDA 
------ 
 
¶6.  Yemen circulated three versions of the agenda, from the 
US, Germany, and Yemen, which caused some confusion among the 
delegations.  Participants agreed that although education is 
an important theme of this year's Forum, it would be 
impossible to include Ministers of Education in the Forum. 
They also agreed that Foreign Ministers should sign up for 
speaking slots in advance.  Timur Soylemez of Turkey called 
for inclusion of the theme of women's empowerment.  Egypt 
recommended a panel discussion followed by interaction with 
the audience.  Al-Dhabbi concluded that during the democracy 
session, Germany will deliver a readout of the Berlin 
subministerial and the Civil Society Parallel Forum will make 
a presentation, followed by discussion.  In the education 
session, Germany and Oman will deliver a readout of the BMENA 
Education Ministerial, followed by discussion.  The UK and 
DAS Patton emphasized that Foundation for the Future chair 
Anwar Ibrahim and Mohammed bin Rachid Foundation chair 
Mohammed bin Rachid al-Gergawi should make short 
presentations of issues to be considered in the democracy and 
education sessions, respectively.  Yemen will circulate a new 
version of the agenda for comment in November, and will 
finalize the agenda by November 20.  Participants also agreed 
that Yemen will draft a chair's summary to be issued at the 
end of the Forum. 
 
SENIOR OFFICIALS MEETING 
------------------------ 
 
¶7.  Participants agreed that the December 4 senior officials 
meeting will discuss issues in more detail.  Yemen will 
circulate all papers in advance, although it might be late in 
circulating the parallel forum's papers given the date of 
that event.  Al-Dhabbi said that civil society 
representatives will be included in the senior officials 
meeting but implied that they would be restricted to a 
handful.  (Note:  NEA followed up later with MFA to stress 
that in past Forums, all civil society representatives 
participated in the senior officials meeting. End Note). 
Egypt agreed that the NGOs should be there to discuss the NGO 
principles circulated at the Berlin subministerial.  Turkey 
said that the senior officials should consider the NGO 
principles.  DAS Patton said that presentations on BMENA 
initiative also should be made.  Japanese Deputy DG for 
Middle East Shinsuke Sugiyama and Moroccan Director of 
Bilateral Affairs Youssef Amrani said that the senior 
officials need to be able to exchange views, but should not 
negotiate. 
 
BMENA SECRETARIAT 
----------------- 
 
¶8.  Bahraini Director of Bilateral Relations Dhafer Al-Umran 
raised a potential mechanism for following up on commitments 
to civil society at BMENA meetings.  He asked that a G8 
government to create a website that other participants could 
contribute to.  DAS Patton, Sugiyama, and Amrani supported a 
virtual information center/secretariat.  Al-Dhabbi said that 
while Yemen had originally proposed a secretariat office, a 
virtual secretariat would not conflict with Yemen's proposal. 
 Raouf Saad of Egypt said that he agreed with the proposal in 
principle. 
 
SELECTION OF FUTURE FORUM HOSTS 
------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  Dhafer said that Japan needs to know who its co-host will 
be for the 2008 Forum, noting that Qatar and the UAE had 
offered.  Sugiyama replied that it is up to BMENA countries 
to select the co-host, but he was hopeful that Japan would be 
able to announce its partner in December.  Japan does not 
want to go through a difficult or clumsy process.  Sugiyama 
said he would talk to Al-Dhabbi about the selection. 
Al-Dhabbi proposed and DAS Patton agreed that Yemen, Germany, 
and Japan should make the final decision after interested 
hosts had made their case.  Dhafer suggested Turkey could 
host, but Soylemez said that Turkey prefers that the host 
remains a country in the Broader Middle East.  Saad said the 
selection process should not be ad hoc in future years. 
Sugiyama agreed. 
 
CENTER FOR ENTREPRENEURIAL EXCELLENCE IN BAHRAIN 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶10.  Dhafer said that BMENA needs a success story.  He did 
not intend to "tell the G8 what to do," but it would be 
unpleasant if Bahrain had to announce at the Forum that its 
Entrepreneurship Center had closed for lack of G8 funding. 
He appreciated US. and UK support and for talking to other G8 
members, and said that he would keep the Center open until 
December.  Sugiyama noted that Japan has contributed $10 
million to the regional IFC facility, and Japan will talk to 
the IFC to see how it can support the Center. 
 
FORUM DATES 
----------- 
 
¶11.  Before ending the meeting, the German Ambassador said 
that his government had received with surprise just two days 
earlier an invitation for an EU-Africa ministerial in Sharm 
el-Sheikh on the same dates as the Forum.  He noted that 
Forum invitations had been sent on September 5.  Asked to 
explain, Raouf Saad said that Egypt believed the Forum had 
been postponed until January and that the December dates 
would be free.  He said that the Sharm dates were now fixed 
and that some ministers, including FM Aboul Gheit, would not 
be able to attend the Forum unless it was postponed two or 
three days.  DAS Patton noted that the Secretary and some 
other G8 ministers are committed to the NATO ministerial on 
December 6 but will be in Sanaa for a successful forum on 
December 4-5.  He suggested that Germany approach the EU and 
others approach Egypt to see if the Sharm dates could be 
moved.  Dhafer Al-Umran of Bahrain stressed that the Forum 
dates have been discussed at all three planning meetings and 
fixed on calendars months ago.  He noted the IISS conference 
in Bahrain right after the Forum and said that a conflict 
with an EU event would look bad.  Sugiyama and Al-Dhabbi said 
that it had never been decided to postpone the Forum, only 
discussed in case the Gulf Cooperation Council summit were to 
conflict.  Amrani, who was not previously aware of dates of 
the EU-Africa ministerial, said that it is an important 
meeting for the EU.  Al-Dhabbi said that changing the Forum 
dates was not up for discussion and asked Egypt to clarify 
the situation as soon as possible.  Germany promised to do 
its utmost in the EU but noted that the Sharm invitation was 
issued by Egypt, not the EU. 
SECHE