Cablegate content: Middle East and North Africa

See also WikiLeaks, WikiLeaks: List of mirror sites

This article has been split into separate sections to handle the large amount of information

• United States diplomatic cables WikiLeak
• Cablegate content: Americas, organisations and leaders
• Cablegate content: Europe
• Cablegate content: Middle East and North Africa
• Cablegate content: South Asia
• Cablegate content: East Asia and Oceania

The United States diplomatic cables leak began on 28 November 2010 when the website WikiLeaks and five major newspapers published confidential documents of detailed correspondences between the U.S. State Department and its diplomatic missions around the world. The publication of the U.S. embassy cables is the third in a series of U.S. classified document "mega-leaks" distributed by WikiLeaks in 2010, following the Afghan War Diary in July, and the Iraq War Logs in October. The cables describe international affairs from 274 embassies dated from 1966–2010.

Middle East and North Africa

Afghanistan

• A cable from the American Embassy in Kabul, said that Ahmad Zia Massoud, Vice President of Afghanistan, was found carrying $52 million in cash that he "was ultimately allowed to keep without revealing the money’s origin or destination". The discovery was made in the United Arab Emirates by local authorities working with the Drug Enforcement Agency.
• Hamid Karzai, President of Afghanistan, was described as "paranoid" in one cable.
• A cable recounting meetings between American officials and Ahmed Wali Karzai, in September 2009 and February 2010, offered the following warning: "Note: While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker". Noting several of Karzai's statements known to be false, the cables explain that "He appears not to understand the level of our knowledge of his activities. We will need to monitor his activity closely, and deliver a recurring, transparent message to him".
• The U.S. military took 15 percent of the €50 million the German government gave to a trust fund to build up the Afghan National Army.

Iran

• The cables reveal some Arab distrust for Iran, and encouragement from pro-US Arab leaders for a military strike on the nuclear facilities in Iran. Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. In one diplomatic cable, King Abdullah said it was necessary to "cut the head of the snake", in reference to Iran's nuclear program. This remains problematic, as many Arab leaders have refrained from publicly criticizing Iran, due to popular support for the country.
• Muhammad bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, urged the U.S. not to appease Tehran and said, "Ahmadinejad is Hitler".
• King Hamad of Bahrain was quoted in 2009 as saying, "That program [the Iranian nuclear program] must be stopped. The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it".
• Maj-Gen. Muhammad al-Assar, assistant to the Egyptian defense minister, was quoted in 2009 saying that "Egypt views Iran as a threat to the region".
• U.S. intelligence has assessed that Iran obtained from North Korea advanced missiles (derived from a Soviet design) that are more powerful than publicly admitted by the U.S. to be in Iran's possession. These missiles, designated the BM-25, have a range of up to Template:convert/mi. However, another cable that has received less attention from mainstream press describes a meeting of US and Russian officials, where the latter dismissed the former's claims, pointing out technical flaws in the evidence presented and inconsistencies in the story.
• An unidentified ally of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has terminal leukemia and is expected to die in months, and Rafsanjani's unwillingness to act after the disputed Presidential election in 2009 comes from his wish to succeed Khamenei and annul Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election afterwards.
• Reports that the Iranian Red Crescent was alleged to be actively controlled by the government and was involved in illicit arms smuggling and intelligence gathering on behalf of Iran.
• A cable from the U.S. State Department indicated that the U.S. was pushing for co-operation from its allies to impose further sanctions on Iran in response to its nuclear program.
• Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and National Security in communication with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service agreed to "help" on Afghan issues, including sharing information regarding potential attacks. CSIS director Jim Judd had confided however that he had not "figured out what they are up to", since it is clear that the "Iranians want ISAF to bleed...slowly".
• According to a cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2009, there is a "widespread rumor" that many Iranians in Baku conduct in illicit activities and that these activities are tied to Iran. These activities include sanctions-busting, money laundering, obtaining spare parts, equipment and revenue generation for the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and management of narcotics trafficking originating from Iran. The cable mentions that many Iranians residing in Baku from different backgrounds, including students, business figures, and human rights activists are involved in these activities.

Israel

• Summary of U.S. Congressman Gary Ackerman's meeting with Netanyahu from Wikileaks cables: Netanyahu stated that a return to the 1967 borders and dividing Jerusalem was not a solution since further withdrawals would only whet the appetite of radical Islam. Ackerman asked if the Palestinians would accept peace based on the 1967 lines. Netanyahu said he would not agree to such a withdrawal since the 1967 lines were indefensible, but he added that the "right of return" was the real acid test of Arab intentions.
• Israel was ready to attack a nuclear-armed Iran, and saw 2010 as a pivotal year. The United States is supplying bunker-buster munitions explicitly for this purpose.
• In August 2007, Israeli Mossad chief Meir Dagan suggested to the U.S. to make use of local fringe groups to try and topple the Iran. WikiLeaks documents also suggest that Dagan denied plans to attack a Syrian nuclear facility, just two months before an attack actually happened.
• Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak consulted with Fatah of the Palestinian Authority and asked if they could take over control of Gaza Strip after expected Israeli victory during Operation Cast Lead, but met with refusal.
• In a conversation with Ackerman in 2007, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Shimon Peres had admitted to him that the Oslo peace process he helped initiate was based on a mistaken premise. Netanyahu said Peres had told him the European and US assistance to the Palestinian Authority had established a "bloated bureaucracy, with PA employees looking to the international community to meet their payroll".
• In the same document, Netanyahu described Kadima as a "fake party" and referred to the Second Lebanon War as "stupid" and criticized the approach of Ehud Olmert's policies towards the conflict.
• In one document from April 2007, Netanyahu, who was opposition leader at the time, describes the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as a "nice man who means well" and urges Washington to focus on toppling Hamas through an "economic squeeze" saying it would be "easier to weaken Hamas than to strengthen Abbas".
• In 2008, U.S. diplomats in the Middle East were instructed to secretly collect personal information on Palestinian leaders, and to closely monitor Israeli military and telecommunication capabilities. One State Department directive orders U.S. diplomats to report on Israeli Military tactics, techniques, and procedures dealing with conventional and unconventional counterinsurgency operations.
• According to a cable from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu supports the concept of land-swaps with the Palestinian Authority and does not want to govern the West Bank and Gaza but rather to stop attacks from being launched from there.
• Netanyahu was described by Luis G. Moreno in one cable: "Netanyahu warned that when Israel left Lebanon it created a first Iranian base, that when it left Gaza it created a second Iranian base, and if Israel "promised" a third retreat from the West Bank it would see the same results. The three options, according to Netanyahu, included withdrawing to the 1967 borders (which would "get terror, not peace"), doing nothing (which he considered "just as bad"), or "rapidly building a pyramid from the ground up". Netanyahu suggested a rapid move to develop the West Bank economically, including "unclogging" bureaucratic "bottlenecks".
• Dagan told American diplomat Frances Fragos Townsend that "nothing will be achieved" in the peace process according to a secret cable the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv sent to the State Department. During a two-hour meeting, Dagan told Townsend that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would "likely move to Qatar and join his mysteriously wealthy son there" in the event Hamas took over the West Bank. In the same cable, Dagan was recorded accusing Saudi Foreign Minister Saud bin Faisal of playing a "very negative role" and characterized Qatar as "a real problem", accusing its leader Sheikh Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani of "annoying everyone". He also suggested the US should move its bases out of Qatar.
• In 2007, then Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Tzipi Livni said she "doubted that a final status agreement could be reached with Abbas, and therefore the emphasis should be on reforming Fatah so that it could beat Hamas at the polls".
• Israeli aerial attacks on Syria (during Operation Orchard, conducted on September 6, 2007) were likely grounded in a confirmed threat. A functioning nuclear reactor had been constructed by Syria, which may have at some point been in use. "(SBU) DG ElBaradei's report on Syria reinforces our conclusion that Syria was engaged in a clandestine effort to construct and operate a nuclear reactor at Al Kibar. The report also helps to confirm that uranium found via environmental samples collected at the site is not naturally occurring, lending credence to the fact that the facility in question was a reactor. Although the report does not categorically dismiss Syria's explanation that the uranium was from Israeli missiles used in the attack on the reactor in September 2007, it suggests that this explanation is highly unlikely. Syria delivered an eleventh-hour letter on 17 February 2009 attempting to demonstrate a degree of cooperation immediately before the report's release. The report notes that the responses in the Syrian letter "were only partial ... and did not address most of the questions raised in the Agency's communications". Importantly, the report also calls on Syria to allow access to other locations and allow inspectors to take samples of the debris removed from Al Kibar as soon as possible, noting that these measures are "essential" for the IAEA to be able complete its assessment".
• Recent intensification of insurgencies in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Sudan may be the result of jihadis returning from Iraq (perhaps, in response to American successes there). "(S) Summary: Mossad Chief Meir Dagan told CODEL Corzine March 13 that Israeli and U.S. thinking on Iran largely tracks, adding that he believes the EU dialogue with Iran will ultimately fail. Dagan said that Israel has evidence that some foreign fighters have returned home from Iraq, perhaps indicating that the tide may be starting to turn in the U.S. battle against the insurgency there. He worried however, that these militants' countries of origin—in particular Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria and Sudan—are ill-equipped to control the returning jihadis, who might then pose a threat to stability in the region and, ultimately, to Israel. End Summary".

Jordan

• A document dated from April 2, 2009 shows then-president of the Jordanian Senate, Zeid Rifai, saying "Bomb Iran, or live with an Iranian bomb. Sanctions, carrots, incentives won’t matter" in a conversation with US ambassador David Hale. According to the cable, "while Rifai judged a military strike would have ‘catastrophic impact on the region,’ he nonetheless thought preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons would pay enough dividends to make it worth the risks".

Kuwait

• 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".

Libya

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

Qatar

• Qatar is using the Arabic TV news channel Al-Jazeera as a bargaining chip in negotiations with other countries. It is "one of Qatar's most valuable political and diplomatic tools".
• Hillary Clinton said that Qatar along with Saudi Arabia, United Arab emirates and Kuwait continue to fund terror.
• The chief of Israel's spy agency Mossad, Meir Dagan warned that Qatar, poses "a real problem" as its emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, tries to please all parties in the Middle East, including Syria, Iran and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Saudi Arabia

• Diplomats claim that Saudi donors remain chief financiers of terrorist groups like Al-Qaeda, Taliban and LeT. Militants seeking donations often come during the hajj pilgrimage. In one occassion, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, used a Saudi-based front company to fund its activities. Main concern of the officials in Riyadh embassy is protecting Saudi oilfields from al-Qaida attacks.
• Saudi King Abdullah has repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. In one diplomatic cable, King Abdullah said it was necessary to "cut the head of the snake", in reference to Iran's nuclear program.
• Iraqi government officials see Saudi Arabia, not Iran, as the biggest threat to the integrity and cohesion of their fledgling democratic state. Iraqi contacts think that the Saudi goal is to enhance Sunni influence, dilute Shia dominance and promote the formation of a weak and fractured Iraqi government.
• King Abdullah proposed that Guantanamo detainees could be monitored through the use of "electronic chips".
• Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal proposed to the US special adviser to Iraq, David M. Satterfield, that an Arab force supported by US and NATO air power could fight Hezbollah in Lebanon. He accused the UN troops in Lebanon of "sitting doing nothing."
• In Jeddah, despite CPVPV (the religious police of Saudi Arabia), there is an ongoing underground nightlife, which includes "the full range of worldly temptations and vices" ie "alcohol, drugs, sex ". Even though these parties are in violation of CPVPV's laws, the mutaween of CPVPV are afraid to stop these parties since these parties are hosted by the princes of Al-Saud, the monarchic ruling house of Saudi Arabia.

Syria

• Syria increased arms shipments to Hezbollah despite its claims that new shipments had ceased.
• A Syrian foreign minister was alleged to have fallen for a "tabloid-like story" regarding the death of Princess Diana. An American ambassador stated that this displayed the Syrian government's "'stark ignorance' of the outside world".
• Omar Suleiman, Chief of the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate, stated that Syria "desperately" wants the halt of the investigation about the assassination of Rafic Hariri, Prime Minister of Lebanon, in 2005. Syria is suspected of involvment in fore-mentioned bombing and in the killings of anti-Syrian figures in neighbouring Lebanon.

Turkey

• Turkey did not invite India for a meeting on Afghanistan to appease Pakistan, reflecting Islamabad’s insistence at every international forum that India be kept out of any meeting on Afghanistan.
• Former Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, during a meeting with Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu, promised to shut down the controversial Denmark-based Kurdish TV-station Roj TV, in order to prevent Turkish obstruction to his appointment as Secretary General of NATO.
• Turkey complained to British diplomats that Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, wanted to ruin Turkey's chances to join the European Union by filming a documentary revealing the plight of disabled children in Turkey. The UK foreign secretary responded by saying that "as a private citizen, her activities could not 'be controlled'".
• Turkish military officials have pressured the U.S. for Predator B drones, to use against the Kurdistan Workers Party in Iraq. Due to American concerns over a potential rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey, the "State Department has warned that the purchasing process promises to be 'long and complex.'"
• Ilham Aliyev, President of Azerbaijan, is no fan of Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan, Prime Minister of Turkey, and the ruling Justice and Development Party despite both countries maintaining fraternal relations publicly. Aliyev criticised Turkish foreign policy by calling it 'naïve'. He also revealed that he had sold gas to Russia in order to impede Turkey's ability to "create a gas distribution hub".

United Arab Emirates

• Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates, referred to as MBZ in the cables, urged the US not to appease Iran and said, "Ahmadinejad is Hitler".
• Muhammad bin Zayed supported the U.S. decision to sell F-16 aircraft to Pakistan to strengthen the Musharraf government, saying the sale would not alter the balance of strength between India and Pakistan.
• Diplomats in the UAE revealed that Muhammad bin Zayed, Abdullah II of Jordan and the UK's Prince Andrew, Duke of York, are "close friends" that "frequently hunt – in Morocco and Tanzania".
• UAE military officials have pressured the U.S. for Predator B drones, to be used in countering Iran. As Iran is known to be developing its own drones, a UAE general stated "That’s why we need it first...give me Predator B".
• Muhammad bin Zayed believes that an Israeli strike will not be successful in stopping Iran's nuclear programme, and therefore a new plan is required. He also believes that Israel will strike Iran, causing Iran to launch missile attacks including hits on the UAE and to unleash attacks worldwide. In his view, the map of the Middle East would change.Template:clarify
• Muhammad bin Zayed apparently runs the United Arab Emirates. While he is officially only the Crown Prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and his only federal title is Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, he is said to be the key decision maker on national security issues. He was observed to be unlike his elder half-brother President Khalifa, who is reported to be a distant and uncharismatic personage. 'MBZ' has authority in all matters except for final decisions on oil policy and major state expenditures.
• MBZ described a nuclear armed Iran as absolutely untenable. He believes that 'all hell will break loose' if Iran attains the bomb, with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey developing their own nuclear weapons capability and Iran instigating Sunni-Shia conflict.
• MBZ said Iran is surrounding Israel driven by ideological conviction and will threaten Israel's existence should it go nuclear. At the same time, he described Iran's ambitions as reflecting a desire to restore Persia's great-power status, rather than driven by religious convictions.
• MBZ suggested that the key to containing Iran revolves around progress on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He argued that it will be essential to bring Arab public opinion in line with the leadership in any conflict with Iran and that roughly 80% of the public is amenable to persuasion. To win them over, the U.S. would have to quickly bring about a two state solution over the objections of the Netanyahu government. He suggested working with moderate Palestinians that support the road map, and forget about the others as there is no time to waste.
• UAE's security officials believed that India along with Iran had supported the Pakistani Taliban and Pushtun separatists. The UAE security officials also believe that the Taliban may draw support from the sizeable Pashtun population resident in the UAE.

Yemen

• Yemen President Ali Abdullah Saleh said if the U.S. attacks Al-Qaida bases in Yemen, he will tell the people of Yemen that it was the Yemeni military that has carried out the attacks rather than the U.S. He asserted that "we'll continue saying the bombs are ours, not yours" in a meeting with General David Petraeus, then head of United States Central Command. Yemen's Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Affairs, Rashad Mohammed al-Alimi, also joked about lying to the Yemen Parliament on U.S. involvement of bombings.