VZCZCXRO8455
PP RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHIHL RUEHKUK
DE RUEHGB #3002 3191441
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 151441Z NOV 09
FM AMEMBASSY BAGHDAD
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5437
INFO RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS BAGHDAD 003002 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/I 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON EAID PGOV IZ
SUBJECT: COORDINATOR FOR ASSISTANCE TRANSITION HASLACH'S 
MEETING WITH DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER ISSAWI 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary. Deputy Prime Minister Rafi al Issawi 
described the Iraqi leadership as completely consumed with 
politics and very unlikely to move forward any significant 
legislation prior to January's elections. He suggested 
formally calling for meetings of the Strategic Framework 
Agreement Joint Coordinating Committee (JCCs) to force the 
Prime Minister's office to name a successor to Barham Saleh 
as Co-Chair of the Economic and Energy JCC. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On November 12, Coordinator for Assistance 
Transition Patricia Haslach, USAID Director and EMIN met 
Deputy Prime Minister Issawi to discuss follow up to the 
Dialogue on Economic Cooperation and press for Council of 
Representatives (CoR) passage of key economic legislation. 
Haslach asked if the GOI had found a replacement for Barham 
Saleh as chair of the Economic and Energy JCC of the 
Strategic Framework Agreement (SFA) and encouraged Issawi to 
energize the SFA working groups. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Issawi said bluntly that the GOI leadership was 
completely preoccupied with politics at the expense of all 
else. He was pessimistic that any economic legislation would 
pass the CoR before elections. Regarding Saleh's role in the 
Economic and Energy JCC, Issawi complained that the Prime 
Minister's office was too busy to handle the job, but was 
unwilling to let anyone else do it. Issawi had suggested 
giving the job to National Investment Commission Chairman Dr. 
Sami al Araji, but the PM's office had refused. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Issawi agreed that it was important to keep the SFA 
working groups active while the country's political leaders 
were consumed in the months ahead with campaigning and 
forming a government. He lamented that some around the PM see 
the SFA as a burden rather than a policy tool. He encouraged 
Haslach to write to the PM to call formally for meetings of 
the Economic/Energy and Services/IT JCCs. This, he hoped, 
would force the PM to name a replacement for Saleh. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Haslach noted that Ambassador Hill and Finance 
Minister Jabr would sign within days a memorandum of 
understanding to confirm duty-free access for imports 
destined for U.S. assistance projects. She told the DPM that 
we may call on him, once that is signed, to encourage the 
appropriate officials to move quickly to release equipment 
currently stuck in Umm Qasr port that is destined for the 
Basrah Children's Hospital. (Issawi, a physician, is always 
attentive to health issues.) 
 
¶6. (SBU) The USAID Director informed Issawi of a preliminary 
program with the Ministry of Health on H1N1 influenza. He 
explained that USAID's larger goals for the health sector 
would focus on a substantially larger program for primary 
health care, not big hospitals.  Issawi agreed, arguing that 
past assistance had been too focused on secondary and 
tertiary health care. 
HILL