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### Viewing cable 09STATE11937, U) Secretary Clinton's February 5, 2009

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Reference ID | Created | Released | Classification | Origin
--- | --- | --- | --- | ---
09STATE11937 | 2009-02-10 03:03 | 2010-11-30 16:04 | SECRET//NOFORN | Secretary of State

`

    O 100328Z FEB 09
    FM SECSTATE WASHDC
    TO AMEMBASSY PARIS IMMEDIATE
    INFO USEU BRUSSELS IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY MOSCOW IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY CAIRO IMMEDIATE
    USMISSION USNATO IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY KYIV IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY KABUL IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY OTTAWA IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY TBILISI IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY SARAJEVO IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY NAIROBI IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY BEIJING IMMEDIATE
    AMCONSUL JERUSALEM IMMEDIATE
    USMISSION USUN NEW YORK IMMEDIATE
    AMEMBASSY LONDON IMMEDIATE

` `

    S E C R E T STATE 011937

    NOFORN

    E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/05/2019
    TAGS: OVIP CLINTON HILLARY PREL KPAL FR IR RS
    NATO, UK, CN
    SUBJECT: (U) Secretary Clinton's February 5, 2009
    expanded meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard
    Kouchner

    CLASSIFIED BY EUR ASSISTANT SECRETARY MARCIE RIES,
    ACTING FOR REASONS 1.4 (D)

    ¶1. (S) SUMMARY: Secretary Clinton and French Foreign
    Minister Bernard Kouchner met on February 5 for 30
    minutes in their first bilateral meeting. The warm and
    open exchange followed a one-on-one working lunch and
    preceded a 20-minute press conference. The two agreed
    to coordinate closely on a wide range of issues
    including the Middle East, Afghanistan, Iran, Russia,
    the Balkans, GTMO detainees and Africa, especially
    Darfur. On Afghanistan, Kouchner emphasized the need
    for greater "Afghanization" and international "access"
    to everyday Afghan people, and asked for U.S. support to
    hold a second "Neighbors" conference to follow up on the
    initial December 14, 2008 event. On GTMO, the FM
    indicated Europe would help on a case-by-case basis, and
    asked the U.S. for assistance with a 15-year old
    Canadian national, Omar Khadr. The FM asked for a
    reaction to its Transatlantic paper, passed to the U.S.
    during France's 2008 EU presidency. As the meeting
    closed, the Secretary joked that the FM was "not even in
    her league" concerning criticism when the FM mentioned a
    new book critical of him that might spark press
    questions. END SUMMARY.

    -----------
    Middle East
    -----------

    ¶2. (C) The Secretary opened the meeting by welcoming FM
    Kouchner and expressing appreciation for French
    leadership on a broad agenda of cooperation, which she
    said President Obama hoped to deepen. Kouchner
    congratulated the Secretary and said he looked forward
    to the pleasure of working together on a first name
    basis. The two then summarized topics discussed in
    their one-on-one meeting, beginning with the Middle
    East.

    ¶3. (S) The Secretary said she understood that the issue
    of the Middle East was of grave concern to France. She
    expressed appreciation for French leadership on
    interdicting weapons into Gaza and with the Copenhagen
    process. She thanked President Sarkozy for his ideas
    and for French work in providing assistance to the
    people of Gaza. FM Kouchner said that he had met with
    Palestinian Authority (PA) PM Abu Mazen three days prior
    and found him completely isolated. There was a game
    being played among Arabs, most of whom, Egyptians
    excepted, did not care. He said "Abbas is lost. You
    tried, we tried but nothing has happened. The key, he
    said, was to figure out how to build up Abu Mazen in a
    government of national unity. Salam Fayyad was a
    fantastic PM who had ideas about how to open the Gaza
    crossing, specifically a tax paid by a group of people
    who would be acceptable to both sides just to get the
    crossing operating." It was especially important, he
    continued, to offer the Palestinian people a sign that
    the crossing was open because of Abu Mazen's
    involvement. He had to be seen as a leader. He said it
    would take weeks and noted that Hamas does not want to
    talk to Mazen. Still, it was important to help convince
    the Israelis to open the crossing. Kouchner cautioned
    that it would be difficult to get anything done ahead of
    the Israeli election on February 10.

    ¶4. (S) The Secretary concurred that the situation was
    difficult. She added that confidence building measures
    were needed so that the Israelis would feel committed.
    It was important to persuade the new Israeli government
    to participate in the peace effort and be convinced that
    they could work with the PA. If Abu Mazen's government
    of national unity is to work, Israel needs to understand
    that it should work with him and that this development
    could help. She was encouraged by the actions that the
    Egyptians had taken against the tunnels. She said there
    was much to coordinate and supported the role of the
    Quartet, but agreed that little could happen in advance
    of the Israeli elections. She noted that the U.S. was
    conducting a review based on Mitchell's work.

    -----------
    Afghanistan
    -----------

    ¶5. (S) The Secretary said that the U.S. was working on
    a comprehensive strategy and thanked the FM for France's
    contributions and cooperation. Kouchner noted that
    France had increased its troops to 3000 from 3300. He
    said there was progress in several areas, including
    civil society, but presented a mixed picture overall.
    He returned several times to problems with access to the
    population and suggested that this was the key. He also
    promoted Afghanization, saying it was important "for the
    people to take their own problems into their own hands."
    He expressed pride in the French hospital in Kabul as an
    example of what was possible noting that Afghan patients
    were being treated by Afghan doctors, and even the
    Taliban presented themselves for treatment. He said
    that Kabul is not Afghanistan, but that Kabul works
    because it has been "Afghanized." The rest of the
    country needs the same, but it will take years. He was
    also concerned about growing Iranian influence, noting
    that a huge Shi'a mosque had recently been built with
    Iranian funds.

    ¶6. (C) FM Kouchner asked for the Secretary's support
    for a follow-up event to the December 14, 2008
    "Afghanistan Neighbors conference" that Kouchner hosted
    in Paris. The FM said the meeting had been very
    interesting, despite the Iranians not showing at the
    last minute, and should be repeated if the U.S. agreed.
    Kouchner put the conference in the context of a broader
    approach, stressing "there is no military solution in
    Afghanistan."

    ¶7. (C) The Secretary took note of the proposal, but
    made no commitment on a follow-up conference. She said
    the U.S. believed that there had been some success with
    building the Army, but more problems with the police.
    Both commented on the strength of the new Minister of
    Interior. The Secretary said that the Minister of the
    Interior was an interesting person but that it might be
    necessary to deal with some of the more radical people
    whether we wanted to or not. On reconciliation,
    Kouchner said that there were some very bad people
    involved, but they were nationals of Afghanistan and it
    was important to start negotiations, including the
    negotiations in Saudi Arabia. Finally on the
    presidency, Kouchner said "Karzai is somebody. We have
    to talk to him, but there may be other candidates." He
    said Anwar-ul-Haq Ahadi was such a person but, while
    interesting, he probably couldn't win against Karzai.
    The Secretary noted that Richard Holbrooke would travel
    to the region.

    -----------
    GUANTANAMO
    -----------

    ¶8. (C) The Secretary expressed appreciation for French
    leadership within the EU on this issue. She said she
    was proud of President Obama's commitment to close the
    facility, calling it "a cancer" the U.S. wanted to take
    care of, but would take time. She said this was
    complicated, so we were asking friends and allies to
    consider taking some detainees. FM Kouchner said the EU
    27 had not yet reached consensus, but that they
    "accepted the idea," but would consider detainees on a
    case-by-case basis; Europeans do not want to create
    legal problems for themselves. They were working with
    three categories of individuals. First were "the best
    cases." Second, were those who had made individual
    requests for resettlement in specific countries and
    third without legal problems. There were many
    outstanding questions, such as whether they had refugee
    status, but because of the Schengen visa requirements,
    it was necessary for the EU to address this together.
    At the end of this discussion, the FM handed the
    Secretary a paper concerning Omar Khadr, a 15-year old
    Muslim of Canadian origin. The Secretary agreed to
    review the case.

    ----
    Iran
    ----

    ¶9. (S/NF) The Secretary opened the discussion by
    alluding to the private conversation with FM Kouchner
    and their agreement that it was important to prevent
    further development of Iran's nuclear capabilities and
    its missile program. Iran's recent space launch
    complicated this effort noting that the Iranians had
    respected none of the internationally recognized
    requirements for a space launches specified in UN
    Security Council resolutions. The FM said he welcomed
    the U.S. willingness to consider direct talks between
    the U.S. and Iran. He said that the Iranians were
    waiting for the U.S. The launch had surprised the
    Russians, of whom he said "they are more affected than
    we being 2000 kilometers closer." He added that the
    sanctions seemed to be having some effect on the
    domestic population, but he ended by repeating the need
    for a Quartet meeting. He said that it was important
    for any approach to be done together with the Germans
    and the Russians, particularly since the Russians are
    closer to Iran and could be more easily targeted.
    Kouchner suggested not including the Chinese because the
    Chinese are "absolutely not useful" in this process.
    The Secretary said it was important to follow up,
    possibly with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband on
    the margins of the G-20 Summit in London.

    ---------------------
    Russia/Georgia/Energy
    ---------------------

    ¶10. (C) FM Kouchner told the Secretary that France had
    been surprised by the Georgian invasion. "We did stop
    it, but we didn't solve it." He continued that the
    South Ossetians and Abkhaz are a "sort of independent
    people" but he worried that there is no humanitarian
    access to the population. He said that Georgian PM
    Saakashvili had been "badly inspired; he fell into the
    trap." But the FM said the Geneva process should
    continue, though it might take months or years. On
    energy, he said the EU had been united, but then Poland,
    Romania and others had been completely cut off and that
    both Russia and Ukraine had been "absolutely awful." He
    said "a group of Europeans were trying to secure a
    pipeline from one country to the other." But he
    cautioned that the U.S. position on Missile Defense was
    also a factor. He complimented Medvedev as "a normal
    guy, at least better than Putin," and credited him with
    what he believed to be the sound decision not to put
    Iskander missiles in Kalinigrad. He said things were
    now more complicated with the Iranian space launch. On
    the whole, things were frozen, which was "not bad" as a
    place to be for the moment.

    ¶11. (C) Continuing on Russia, Kouchner said that the
    main thing for the U.S. and Russia to begin to work
    together. "Let's talk to them," he said. He said that
    the Russians are "rough, rude, and brutal," but we
    should still engage them. Kouchner said Russian FM
    Lavrov was one of the most brutal, but was among the
    cleverest FMs. In any case, they were an important
    player and had to be included.

    -------
    Balkans
    -------

    ¶12. (C) FM Kouchner said that Bosnia remained a
    problem, but, it was important to simply "follow the
    road." It was important to push the Serbian government
    closer to the EU, though he conceded this was difficult
    due to Dutch and Belgian objections to the failure of
    the Serbs to hand over Ratko Mladic to ICTY. Presumably
    referring to EULEX, he said there was success on the
    ground in Kosovo as the two sides were not killing each
    other and concluded that things were not in a bad place
    for the moment.

    ------
    Darfur
    ------

    ¶13. (C) FM Kouchner told the Secretary he thought the
    International Criminal Court (ICC) would soon issue an
    arrest warrant against Sudanese President Omar al-
    Bashir. He complimented the Qataris for playing a
    useful role with their work in Doha. He said they were
    working with both sides, including the Islamists. He
    said it had taken two years to build toward success.
    EUFOR, a contingent of 17 nations deployed in Eastern
    Chad and northern Central African Republic, was a
    success and he expected a resolution before March 15
    when EUFOR will hand over its responsibilities to the UN
    (MINURCAT II). On the humanitarian front, he estimated
    that half of the displaced persons in Eastern Chad,
    mainly women, would begin coming home in Darfur by March
    ¶15.

    ----------------------------
    Book and Transatlantic Paper
    ----------------------------

    ¶14. (SBU) As the meeting ended, the Secretary said
    there was a lot to digest and do. It would require
    cooperation. On a lighter note, FM Kouchner said that
    waiting journalists might raise the issue of "The World
    According to K," the expose published yesterday accusing
    him of enriching himself as a consultant in Africa,
    tarnishing his humanitarian image. The Secretary
    dismissed the book, saying "One book? I have 25.
    You're not even in my league!" He said that "the first
    one hurts a little more than the others." The FM asked
    the Secretary for US reaction to the Transatlantic paper
    passed to the U.S. during the French presidency. The
    Secretary said she would review the issue and respond.
    Note: EUR passed the paper to S staff on 2/5/09 and is
    preparing a response to the FM). End note.

    ¶15. (U) Participants in the Bilateral:

    United States
    The Secretary
    SCA - A/S Richard Boucher
    EUR - PDAS Marcie Ries
    NEA - DAS David Hale
    PA - Robert Wood
    EUR/WE - Pamela Spratlen (notetaker)
    NSC - Toby Bradley
    Interpreter

    France
    Foreign Minister Kouchner
    Ambassador Vimont
    Eric Chevallier, MFA Spokesperson
    Philippe Errera, MFA Counselor
    Emmanuelle Lenain, Embassy Spokesperson
    Aurelien Lechevallier, Notetaker
    Interpreter

    CLINTON

`