VZCZCXRO1442
PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHGI RUEHJS RUEHKUK RUEHLH
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHTRO
DE RUEHRB #0667/01 2121716
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 311716Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY RABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0522
INFO RUCNISL/ISLAMIC COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHCL/AMCONSUL CASABLANCA PRIORITY 4689

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 RABAT 000667 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR S/P, R, NEA, OES, NEA/PI AND NEA/MAG 
NSC FOR PRADEEP RAMAMURTHY 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL OEXC SOCI KISL PINR MO
SUBJECT: MUSLIM ENGAGEMENT: OPPORTUNITIES FOR COOPERATION 
WITH ISESCO 
 
REF: RABAT 0638 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Summary:  The Islamic Educational, Scientific, and 
Cultural Organization (ISESCO) could facilitate linkages 
between U.S. and Islamic world universities, ISESCO Director 
General Abdulaziz Othman Altwaijri told the Charge on July 
¶24.  Altwaijri, an admirer of the U.S., proposed that such 
linkages could then be expanded into the areas of interfaith 
dialogue and scientific research.  Altwaijri hoped for an 
official invitation to Washington to meet with U.S. policy 
makers and other officials to further discuss and inaugurate 
a new era of cooperation between ISESCO and the U.S.  The 
Embassy views this opening with ISESCO as a prime opportunity 
for the U.S. to advance enhanced engagement with the Muslim 
World, as called for in President Obama's June 4 speech in 
Cairo.  We recommend the Department's timely consideration 
for inviting ISESCO Director General Altwaijri to Washington 
to advance this potential opening, possibly focusing on 
exchanges of faculty and students, joint research, and cross 
cultural lectures.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) On July 24, Charge, Acting DCM and Public Affairs 
Counselor, PolCouns, A/EconCouns, and D/PolCouns paid a 
courtesy call on ISESCO Director General Abdulaziz Othman 
Altwaijri and Chief of Staff Ahmed Said Ould Bah at ISESCO 
Headquarters in Rabat to discuss engagement between the U.S. 
and ISESCO.  Altwaijri opened the meeting by expressing his 
admiration for the U.S., where he studied at the University 
of Oregon from 1975-1982.  He called the U.S. the most 
important (and powerful) country in the world and a role 
model for all nations in advancing freedom, diversity, and 
progress.  He said ISESCO was a natural partner with the U.S. 
because it was working to advance the same ideals. 
 
--------------------------------------------- 
Obama Has Changed the Tone in the Middle East 
--------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3.  (SBU) He described the Obama Administration, especially 
in the context of President Obama's speeches in Cairo and 
Istanbul, where Altwaijri spoke to the President about 
ISESCO, as an opportunity to advance cooperation in 
education, interfaith dialog, and science.  Although he had 
traveled to the U.S. in his role as Secretary General since 
1991, Altwaijri said he had not traveled to the U.S. since 
the 9/11 attacks, which he described as &criminal and 
inhuman.8  He said that he would welcome an opportunity to 
travel to the U.S. to engage with U.S. policy makers on 
greater U.S.-ISESCO cooperation, adding that the previous 
administration's policies had produced a &spirit of 
antagonism8 toward Islam and that he had felt uncomfortable 
traveling to the U.S. up until now. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
Potential Areas for U.S.-ISESCO Cooperation 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Altwaijri proposed that ISESCO and the USG work to 
establish linkages between universities in the U.S. and 
Muslim countries, i.e., exchanges of faculty and students, 
joint research, and cross cultural lecturing, which he 
described as low cost and a good start.  ISESCO chairs the 
Federation of Islamic World Universities, a consortium of 
approximately 250 universities in the Muslim world. 
Altwaijri said that such efforts could be followed by 
cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue facilitated through 
conferences, seminars, and lectures of religious leaders, 
which ISESCO could support financially.  He said that in the 
area of science and technology, ISESCO and the U.S. could 
identify scientific research centers that could conduct joint 
programs and projects in fields of common interest. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Altwaijri reiterated the content of an ISESCO 
letter sent to the Embassy on July 21 which welcomed an 
official USG invitation for Secretary General Altwaijri to 
visit the U.S. to establish a cooperative &framework of 
action.8  (Note: The letter had been precipitated by an 
introductory, July 20 meeting between the ISESCO Chief of 
Staff and PolCouns.  ISESCO proposed that the visit contain 
the following elements:  Official meetings (White House, 
State Department, Congress, Special Envoy to the Islamic 
World); media interviews with al-Hurra and other press 
institutions; a speech at one of the universities in the 
Washington, D.C., area for an audience of academics, members 
of civil society, and ambassadors; and a signature ceremony 
of a partnership protocol between ISESCO and the USG (and/or 
important American institutions) in one of the 
 
RABAT 00000667  002 OF 002 
 
 
above-mentioned areas of cooperation. 
 
------------------------- 
ISESCO's Other Activities 
------------------------- 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Underscoring ISESCO's successful track record of 
partnering with other institutions, Altwaijri noted that 
ISESCO will hold a conference with the World Bank on the 
&knowledge economy8 in Tunis in December; a conference 
among Ministers of Education from various countries in Kuala 
Lumpur next year; and a meeting of the Federation of Islamic 
World Universities in Baku in March 2010.  He said that 
ISESCO already has an agreement with the Texas consortium of 
colleges, which Altwaijri said could serve as a model for 
other U.S. university partnering arrangements. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
Middle East Unrest Threatens ISESCO-U.S. Cooperation 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Although ISESCO remains optimistic about the 
prospects of ISESCO-U.S. cooperation, Altwaijri cautioned 
that anything that ISESCO and the U.S. accomplish together 
will largely be eclipsed if a durable Israeli-Palestinian 
peace is not found, with security for the Israelis and a 
state for the Palestinians.  He opined that there was little 
confidence in the Muslim world that Israeli Prime Minister 
Netanyahu truly intends to permit the formation of a 
Palestinian state.  He called Israel's defiance of U.S. 
pressure to stop expansion of Israeli settlements in the West 
Bank troubling.  He asserted his belief that without 
continued pressure from the U.S. and the European Union, 
Israel would not make a peace deal. 
 
----------------------------- 
Good Prospects for the Future 
----------------------------- 
 
¶8.  (SBU) The meeting concluded with the understanding that 
Embassy and ISESCO staffs would follow up at the working 
level to advance the discussed areas of cooperation. 
Altwaijri agreed with the concept of using the Embassy as a 
conduit of communication to the USG. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The Embassy's ground breaking contact with ISESCO 
presents a prime avenue for the USG to advance outreach to 
Muslims as called for in President Obama's Cairo and Istanbul 
speeches as ISESCO already coordinates and promulgates 
exchanges, outreach, and partnership among Muslim populations 
in many of the areas the President identified.  We recommend 
the Department's timely consideration for inviting ISESCO 
Secretary General Altwaijri to Washington to advance this 
potential opening.  End Comment. 
 
 
***************************************** 
Visit Embassy Rabat's Classified Website; 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Moro cco 
***************************************** 
 
Jackson