2010 United States diplomatic cables leak/Middle East

2010 United States diplomatic cables leak/Middle East  (Wikileaks/Leaks,  Leak)
Start	2010
Exposure by WikiLeaks of acquired diplomatic cables, between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions around the world. Many previously unknown statements or opinions about a variety topics have been revealed. This page covers the Middle Eastern leaders, not their companies in particular.

The 2010 United States diplomatic cables leak were said to comprehensive portrayal of the United States' perspective on various subjects related to the Middle East. These classified documents, known as diplomatic cables, exchanged between the United States Department of State and its diplomatic missions worldwide, have been made public by WikiLeaks. As a result, numerous previously undisclosed statements and opinions pertaining to a wide range of Middle Eastern matters have come to light. The following presents a selection of the information contained within these cables.

Algeria

On 17 December 2007, to the US Secretary of State, the US Ambassador to Algeria, Robert Ford, said how former government officials, opposition leaders, and journalists "paint a picture of an Algerian regime that is fragile in ways it has not been before, plagued by a lack of vision, unprecedented levels of corruption and rumblings of division within the military rank and file".

Bahrain

In cables from 2005 to 2009, Bahrain was offended by threats to Arab solidarity, the assassination of Hariri, and voiced a desire to increase its television broadcasting capabilities.

Iran and Qatar conspiring to divide Arab interests

The Crown Prince Salman of Bahrain argued that Iran is conspiring with Qatar, Hezbollah and Hamas to divide Arab countries. Bahrain and other Arab governments were angry at media reports that an Iranian official described Bahrain as "Iran's fourteenth province".

Hariri assassination blame falls on Syria

King Hamad said that Syria was behind the assassination of Rafic Hariri.

Bahrain wants to develop its TV/Radio capability

King Hamad said that he instructed Bahrain's minister of information Abdul-Ghaffar to get help from the US to turn its television broadcasting into a world class operation.

Egypt

In cables dated between 2008 and 2009, the "declining state of the Egyptian military and the unwillingness of the Defense Minister Tantawi to accede to US suggestions of Egyptian human rights reform in return for US economic aid". A billion dollars worth of military hardware sold to Egypt, to make peace with Israel as well as "priority access to the Suez canal and Egyptian airspace" was also discussed.

Defense Minister Tantawi

Defense Minister Tantawi was seen as good guy for his cooperation with Israel and helping maintain a blockade against Hamas, as he was said to be an eighty-year-old veteran of five wars with Israel and thereby uninterested in another conflict. However, Tantawi was described as being extremely stubborn and uncooperative with his own generals, and the US officials argued he was to unintelligent to understand the post Camp David "military situation" which was argued by the cable to create dissent between him and his Soviet trained military officers and the American trained part of the new Egyptian Military. caused low and mid-level NCOs ministries around Cairo to openly complain about Tantawi (as he was nicknamed "Mubarak's Poodle"), claiming that he is "running the military into the ground" and that he only has his job due to his unwavering loyalty to Mubarak. H

Further criticism pointed to his weird preference of spending U.S. aid on advanced tanks and fighter jets to fight large-scale wars with outdated tactics, being criticised by CIA leader David Petraeus. He was pointed as refusing any simple political option, and only willing to use the army to eliminate the Muslim Brotherhood.

Iraq War

Former Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak said the US should find a "fair dictator" to rule Iraq and to "Strengthen the Iraqi armed forces, relax your hold, and then you will have a coup. Then we will have a dictator, but a fair one."

Egypt-Iran relations

Mubarak said that Iranian leaders are "big, fat liars", and that Iran's backing of terrorism is "well-known".

The cables also said Mubarak was happy to be able to sell congress members that Iraq was detoriating so much that he could say "I told you so". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 14 December 2010.</ref> According to one cable, Mubarak only was focused on Iran as the primary enemy for the times facing Egypt, and an Egyptian official said that Iran is running spooks with black ops inside Egypt to control the Egyptian government.

Iran

Full article: Iran

Israel

Full article: Israel

Jordan

Iran-Jordan relations

A diplomatic cable, dated 2 April 2009, quotes Zeid Rifai, president of the Jordanian Senate, as saying, "Bomb Iran, or live with an Iranian bomb. Sanctions, carrots, incentives won't matter", in a conversation with David Hale, US Ambassador to Jordan. The cable further said "while Rifai judged a military strike would have 'catastrophic impact on the region,' it was worth it"

Guantanamo Bay detainees

Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, referring to Kuwaiti Guantanamo detainees, said:

“You know better than I that we cannot deal with these people (the Guantanamo detainees). I can't detain them. If I take their passports, they will sue to get them back. I can talk to you into next week about building a rehabilitation center, but it won't happen. We are not Saudi Arabia; we cannot isolate these people in desert camps or somewhere on an island. We cannot compel them to stay. If they are rotten, they are rotten and the best thing to do is get rid of them. You picked them up in Afghanistan; you should drop them off in Afghanistan, in the middle of the war zone.”
Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah,  Wikileaks (2010) 

Iran

Kuwait believed Iran was supporting Shia extremists in the Persian Gulf and the Shiite Houthis in Yemen.

US militarily helping Persian Gulf States

US Army-elements were assisting the Persian Gulf states in increasing ballistic missile and counter-air defenses, as well as providing early warning systems against the eventuality of an Iranian missile launch.

Kuwait based charities financing extremism

Al Qaeda and other groups exploited Kuwait, both as a source of funds and as a key point for arms smuggling and money laundering according to some cables released by The Guardian.

Lebanon

Full article: Lebanon

Libya

Uranium shipment

A Libyan shipment of enriched uranium to Russia, brokered by the US, was nearly the cause of an environmental disaster in Tripoli in 2009.

Lockerbie

Libya's state oil company called in a senior Petro-Canada official with a threat to nationalize his firm's operations in Libya if the Canadian government refused to apologize to the Libyan government. Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon was the cause of this in deep lobbying against several conspirators. Libya ordered Petro-Canada to cut production by 50 per cent.

Morocco

Corruption

A cable from the US embassy in Rabat to Washington, D.C. referred to allegations of deeply established corruption, suggesting that corruption a standard part of Moroccan society. The Royal Family of Morocco were using the state ministries to "coerce and solicit bribes in the real estate sector" and even the military and the generals were being bribed. Blamed was King Hassan II and his claim after successful coups in the 1970s against him to "Stay loyal, and you can reap the benefits.", barely staying in power.

Pakistan

Full article: Pakistan

Palestine

Lashkar-e-Taiba raised funds in Pakistan for the Palestinian people in response to Israel's attacks on Gaza.

Qatar

Al Jazeera

Qatar was using the Arabic television news channel Al Jazeera as a bargaining chip in negotiations with other countries as it was named "one of Qatar's most valuable political and diplomatic tools."

Financial support for Islamic militants abroad

Hillary Clinton was said to have claimed that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Kuwait were funding terror.

Diplomatic tendencies

Meir Dagan, the chief of the Mossad said that Qatar was "a real problem" as Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani was uniting all in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran, and Hamas.

Qatar-US relations

The Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassim Al Thani, repeatedly described the United States as a "friend" and called US-Qatari friendship as just "strategic".

Saudi Arabia

Full article: Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia was said to support dozens of terror groups, aimed at messing with Israel, Iran, and the US, killing other Arabs if needed, or their sources of income. Iraqi officials have noted that frequent anti-Shia outbursts from Saudi religious figures are often allowed to circulate without sanction or disapproval from the Saudi leadership

Lebanon-Saudi relations

Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal proposed to David M. Satterfield, the U.S. special adviser to Iraq, that an Arab force supported by U.S. and NATO air power could fight Hezbollah in Lebanon. Saud expressed his fears that a Hezbollah victory in Beirut would mean the end of the Siniora government and the 'Iranian takeover' of Lebanon.

Saudi-Yemen relations

Saudi Assistant Interior Minister, Prince Muhammad bin Nayef, described "Yemen as a dangerous failed state and a growing threat to Saudi Arabia because it attracts Al Qaida and many Yemenis were more sympathetic to Al Qaida than Afghan, while Yemeni President Saleh was losing control, and outlined a Saudi strategy of co-opting Yemeni tribes with assistance projects".

Saudi support for a Palestinian state

During French President Sarkozy's visit to Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah told Sarkozy Israelis must cease all West Bank settlement construction. Abdullah maintained that East Jerusalem must be the capital of a Palestinian state and that East-Jerusalem must be solely under Arab control.

Censorship and propaganda

According to a May 2009 cable, the "Saudi regulatory system offers the al-Saud regime a means to manipulate the nation's media to promote its own agenda", and people crying for help were silenced ad-hoc.

All major media outlets in Saudi Arabia — newspapers, such as Al-Watan, Al-Hayat, and Asharq Al-Awsat, and free-to-view television networks, such as MBC Group and Rotana — are owned and controlled by the al-Saud regime, and accordingly self-censorship were controlled by the royal house of Saud and "motivated by profit and politics". The pro-western ideologies in these newspapers and American programming such as Friends, Desperate Housewives, the Late Show with David Letterman and Hollywood films were seen to socially engineer a change in view of the US of the local youth.

Oil Production

Sadad al Husseini, a senior Saudi government oil executive, warned oil levels in the country were overstated by as much as 300 billion barrels (or 40% of the claimed reserve). Saudi Arabia was said to have little to say about oil prices at all.

Syria

Arms shipments to Hezbollah

Syria increased its arms shipments to Hezbollah despite its claims that new shipments had ceased.

Tabloid incident

A Syrian foreign minister was scolded for pushing a conspiracy theory coming from a "tabloid-like story" regarding the death of Princess Diana.

Assassination of Rafic Hariri

Omar Suleiman, chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, pushed for new searches for the assassination of Rafic Hariri, prime minister of Lebanon, on 14 February 2005 as he suspected Syria of involvement in that assassination and in the [[Lebanon bombings and assassinations related to it.

Tunisia

Corruption

The regime of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali was a completely corrupt police state with huge amounts of nepotism", referring to a 17 July 2009 cable. The cable stated, "Corruption in the inner circle is growing. What should we do? It was said to have even been one of the causes of the fall of President Ben Ali in the Arab Spring.

Political turmoil

According to Robert Godec, the US Ambassador to Tunisia, Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, President of Tunisia, and his government have "lost touch with the Tunisian people" as the presidential family "tolerated no advice of criticism whether domestic or international". The Son-In-Law was meanwhile hosting dinners with US officials with pet tigers and chefs from all over the world.

Allegations of torture

The Canadian Ambassador to Tunisia, Bruno Picard, argued Tunesia was torturing many prisoners from black sites. The claim was made at a meeting about returning Tunisian prisoners to their home country from the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Tunisia has insisted it does not practice torture, however Picard claimed this was "bullshit". The US Embassy held a meeting with the Canadian, British, French, German and Italian ambassadors to boycott them for transporting Guantanamo prisoners.

Iran-UAE relations

Iran nuclear program

See also: Iran and Nuclear weapons

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, described Iran's then-leader Ahmadinejad to Hitler.

The Israeli–Palestinian conflict was again pointed to as problem to end all problems, and hinted "eighty percent of the Iranian public is amenable to persuasion". Moderate Palestinians would be needed and Israeli PM Netanyahu would be needed to be ignored. He said that UAE is scared to death to Israel, said if Iran has a nuke "all hell will break loose" because, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey would make their own as well to "instigating Sunni-Shia conflict".

In the cable leak, Mohammed bin Zayed was said Israel would strike Iran if Iran develops nuclear missiles, Iran to launch missile attacks on the region and other Arab countries. Israeli was not able to strike Iran's nuclear program for good, but instead cause Iran to "unleash terror attacks worldwide". Iran was antisocially painted as good for Muslims and needing to have their own bomb.

Lebanon & UAE relations

Lebanese Armed Forces

Emirati Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed said that the UAE funded Lebanese Armed Forces helicopters, but was stonewalled by France to provide a price estimate.

Pakistan's leaders

In July 2009, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, called PM Zardari "dirty but not dangerous" but prime minister Nawaz Sharif was "dangerous but not dirty -- this is Pakistan", not explaining what was better.

Baloch insurgency

DG ISI General Shuja Pasha commented that India, the UAE, and Russia were funding, arming, and training rebels from Baloc.

Drone attacks in Pakistan

The UAE allowed Americans to use an airport of the UAE in Pakistan (Shamsi Airbase) in order to launch drone strikes against militants. UAE was angry when General Tommy Franks revealed this in his book "American Soldier" due to his fear UAE officials would be killed in Pakistan.

Alleged Indian and Iranian support for insurgents in Pakistan

The UAE believed that India and Iran had aided Taliban and Pushtun separatists in Pakistan, and that Pashtuns in the UAE were supporting the Taliban.

Predator drones

UAE military officials pressured the US to acquire Predator B drones to be used in Iran warning of Iran developing much better drones.

Mohammad bin Zayed

In a cable leak, then US ambassador to the UAE Richard G. Olson described Mohammed bin Zayed as "the key decision maker on national security issues" as he had "authority in all matters except for final decisions on oil policy and major state expenditures" with the UAE president Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan "a distant and un-charismatic personage", as only Zayed was a "dynamic member of the generation succeeding the geriatric cases who have dominated the region for decades." Unsurprisingly, Mohammad bin Zayed was said to have the UAE Armed Forces work with the US."

Terror donors

UAE-based donors have provided financial support to dozens of terrorist groups, but D.C couldn't provide names of donors, naming Hilary Clinton as a source of many of these claims.

UAE regulations requiring declarations for cash imports of over US$10,800, but no regulations existing covering cash exports were said to be awful. "Cash couriers" were said to needed to be banned.

Yemen

Axis of Nukes and Terorrists

During a meeting with General David Petraeus, Yemen's then-president, Ali Abdullah Saleh said that if the United States were to conduct attacks on Al Qaeda bases in Yemen, he would publicly claim that the Yemeni military had carried out the operations, concealing any US involvement. Saleh laughed at the officials when he said, "We'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours." With the room erupting in laughter as Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs, Rashad Mohammed Alimi, also discussed misleading Yemen's Parliament regarding US participation in bombings while US officials looked baffled.

Yemen's primary National Atomic Energy Commission was said to store iridium and cobalt-60, as reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). A cable reported that the sole security guard responsible for the facility had been removed from his post on December 30, 2009 and in a very strange story, the sole closed-circuit television security camera, which monitored the facility, had been out of order for six months without any repairs. No explanation was given and IAEA did not launch an investigation.

External links

• Secret US Embassy Cables by WikiLeaks
• The US embassy cables by The Guardian
• State's Secrets by The New York Times
• WikiLeaks Diplomatic Cables Archived 1 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. by Der Spiegel
• Dedicated News Website
• Dutch Wikileaks Mirror by WikiLeaks
• Cablesearch.org Full text search of released cables.

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