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RUEHTRO/AMEMBASSY TRIPOLI 6334

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 TRIPOLI 000110 
  
 SIPDIS 
  
 DEPT FOR NEA/MAG 
  
 E.O. 12958: DECL:  2/3/2020 
 TAGS: PREL AL KPAL KSUM EG LY
 SUBJECT: MUBARAK AND QADHAFI CONFER ON AL SUMMIT PLANNING, VISAS FOR 
 EGYPTIANS 
  
 REF: A) TRIPOLI 53; B) TRIPOLI 95 
  
 TRIPOLI 00000110  001.2 OF 002 
  
  
 CLASSIFIED BY: Gene A. Cretz, Ambassador, US Embassy Tripoli, 
 Department of State. 
 REASON: 1.4 (b), (d) 
 ¶1. (C) Summary: Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak flew to Libya 
 on February 3 for a three-hour meeting with Muammar al-Qadhafi 
 to discuss the upcoming Arab League Summit and growing 
 differences over requirements for Egyptians entering Libya. 
 Qadhafi reportedly also expressed interest in trying to mediate 
 between Egypt and Qatar. Mubarak was expected to counsel Qadhafi 
 that Libya needed to do more to assure Saudi Arabia that the 
 summit would not lead to any new tensions between the two 
 countries.  The Egyptian Embassy expects that Iran will be 
 invited to the summit at the ministerial level but noted that 
 several Arab countries -- including Egypt -- would boycott the 
 summit if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended.  The Egyptian Embassy 
 chalked up recent visits by Hamas Political Chief Khaled Meshaal 
 to "independent" rather than official GOL initiatives to broker 
 a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation in advance of the March 27 summit. 
 Engagement with Qadhafi in the run-up to the Arab League Summit, 
 strongly advocated by the Arab diplomatic community here, could 
 help manage his notorious unpredictability.  End Summary. 
  
 ¶2. (C) Muammar al-Qadhafi held private talks with Egyptian 
 President Hosni Mubarak in Sirte on February 3 to discuss 
 Libya's upcoming presidency of the Arab League (AL) and 
 continuing differences over entry requirements for Egyptian 
 nationals coming to Libya.  Egyptian poloff said the three-hour 
 visit would help the two countries coordinate in advance of the 
 March 28 Arab League Summit scheduled to take place in Tripoli. 
 Mubarak planned to counsel Qadhafi that Libya needed to better 
 assure the Saudis that the Libyan-hosted summit would not serve 
 as a platform to embarrass the royal family but instead move 
 forward in a spirit of reconciliation between the two leaders. 
  
 IRAN EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE AT THE FM LEVEL 
  
 ¶3. (C) The Egyptian poloff expected that Arab-Iranian relations 
 and Palestinian issues would dominate the summit, and he noted 
 that Libya had made recent, high profile contact on both issues. 
  The Egyptian ambassador also told the Ambassador that Sudan and 
 upcoming non-proliferation events in the U.S., as well as 
 Qadhafi's possible proposals to create new high-level political 
 and military positions in the Arab League along the lines of 
 NATO and the EU, would also figure prominently.  Arabs, he said, 
 would not tolerate surprises like Libya's management of the July 
 2009 African Union Summit in Sirte, where Qadhafi's rumored, 
 last-minute invitation of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 
 had caused Mubarak to cancel his attendance at that summit at 
 the eleventh hour.  (Note: While Iranian diplomats were at the 
 venue to advance Ahmadinejad's visit to the AU Summit, his visit 
 was cancelled on the day he was supposed to arrive.)  Should 
 Ahmadinejad attend, he said, several heads of state -- including 
 Egypt's -- would boycott the summit.  He expected Iranian FM 
 Manuchehr Motaki, who visited Tripoli on January 14, to 
 represent Iran as an observer.  The Iranian outreach by Libya is 
 reportedly consistent with Qadhafi's new vision of being able to 
 serve as a bridge between Tehran and the Arab world. 
  
 PALESTINIAN UNITY TO FIGURE LARGE ON AGENDA 
  
 ¶4. (C) Recalling the yet-unfulfilled January 2009 pledge by 
 Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to provide $1.5 billion in 
 reconstruction assistance to Gaza, the Egyptian poloff assessed 
 that Palestinian issues would provide plenty of opportunities to 
 weaken fragile Arab unity and that Arab leaders would be 
 "holding their breath" and hoping to avoid unwelcome surprises 
 by the unpredictable Qadhafi.  Although Libya has played host to 
 Hamas' Khaled Meshaal twice in as many months, the Egyptian 
 poloff did not expect any major initiatives by the Libyan 
 government to force Hamas-Fatah resolution before the March 28 
 summit.  In his view, "independent" initiatives like those of 
 Khalid al-Humeidi -- son of long-time Qadhafi insider al-Khweldi 
 al-Humeidi -- would intensify on the outside chance a Libyan 
 could reach a breakthrough.  Humeidi reportedly visited Ramallah 
 and Gaza earlier this year to meet with Mahmoud Abbas and 
 Meshaal and has organized humanitarian assistance to Gaza 
 through his quasi-independent International Organization for 
 Peace, Care, and Relief (septel). 
  
 ¶5. (C) While MFA A/S-equivalent Omran Abu Kraa and Deputy 
 Foreign Minister-equivalent Muhammed Siala have been named to 
 lead Libya's preparations for the summit, the organizing 
  
 TRIPOLI 00000110  002.2 OF 002 
  
  
 committee has not communicated with member states on logistics 
 or the agenda.  A purpose-built site for the conference is 
 rumored to be under construction on the sprawling grounds of the 
 new Libyan Protocol office, though guest palaces nearer public 
 view at that site appear to require more than seven weeks to 
 complete.  The Egyptian poloff commented that Arab leaders would 
 be less forgiving than the African delegations in Sirte -- some 
 of whom slept on the beach as they awaited proper room 
 assignments from their Libyan hosts. 
  
 EGYPT SEEKS EASING OF LIBYA VISA REQUIREMENTS 
  
 ¶6. (C) During his February 3 meeting with Qadhafi, Mubarak was 
 expected to push for resolution of increasingly serious problems 
 regarding Libyan entry requirements for Egyptian nationals. 
 According to the Egyptian poloff, Egyptians are still subject to 
 new requirements for visas or valid work contracts begun earlier 
 this year (ref a) while Algerians and Tunisians have reverted to 
 earlier rules allowing entry without a visa upon demonstrating 
 financial self-sufficiency (in the form of $800 cash).  Recent 
 bilateral agreements with countries providing significant labor 
 to Libya, including Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, include 500 dinar 
 (USD 420) commissions for Libyan sponsors of guest workers from 
 those countries.  In the Egyptian poloff's view, officials 
 taking advantage of the financial inducements for sponsoring 
 workers from those countries bore part of the blame for Egypt's 
 continued troubles.  Libya recently began a crackdown on illegal 
 Egyptian workers.  The Egyptian ambassador told the Ambassador 
 that the Libyan crackdown resulted initially from European 
 pressure on Libya to stem illegal traffic to Europe, and 
 intensified after the extensive and embarrassing Egyptian press 
 coverage given to Mutassim al-Qadhafi's New Year's partying in 
 the Caribbean (ref b). 
  
 COMMENT 
  
 ¶7. (C) In the wake of his failed attempt to extend his 
 leadership of the African Union, Qadhafi undoubtedly is looking 
 to the March 27 Arab League summit and beyond as a way to 
 bolster his international standing.  His massive ego and 
 notoriously erratic behavior have generated much concern among 
 the Arab diplomatic community here about the summit and its 
 outcomes.  The Arabs here have been very insistent that the U.S. 
 has a role to play in influencing the outcome by engaging 
 Qadhafi in the lead-up to the summit. 
 CRETZ