P 030830Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI
TO SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2546
INFO GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE S E C R E T ABU DHABI 000558 
 
 
NOFORN 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/02/2019 
TAGS:      
SUBJECT: UAE SHAYKHS ON POTUS SPEECH, IMAGE OF AMERICA 
 
REF:  Abu Dhabi 0553 
 
Classified by Ambassador Richard Olson, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
 1.  (C) SUMMARY:  Two senior members of the Nahyan family were very 
positive on the Cairo speech, and evinced high expectations.   Shaykh 
Saif (who appears to be an ascendant power in the family) expressed 
appreciation for the President's bold decision to go forward with the 
123 Agreement.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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POTUS SPEECH IN CAIRO 
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 2.  (C) UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Shaykh 
Saif bin Zayed Al-Nahyan told Ambassador that Emiratis were very much 
looking forward to the President's speech in Cairo.  Saif said the 
choice of Cairo was a good one because it showed that the US was not 
ignoring the most populous Arab nation.  He also welcomed the 
speech's backing by Al Azhar University.  Saif concluded by saying 
that President Obama's ability to articulate US outreach to the 
Muslim world would go a long way toward undoing the damage caused by 
previous usage of the of the word "crusade" in a positive context. 
 
 3. (C) UAE Foreign Minister Shaykh Abdullah bin Zayid Al-Nahyan (AbZ) 
raised with Ambassador the subject of POTUS speech, saying that he 
had his "fingers crossed."  From the context of the conversation, it 
was clear that this remark meant he expected the speech to advance 
the prospects for peace between the Arabs and Israel. 
 
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SHAYKH SAIF ON OVERALL RELATIONS WITH US 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
 4. (C) Saif told Ambassador that the UAEG had really appreciated 
President Obama's decision to approve the 123 Agreement on Civil 
Nuclear Cooperation and so notify Congress.  The UAE understood that 
the recent revelations of human rights problems (reftel) had put the 
Administration in a difficult position.  The President's decision was 
therefore a courageous one, and one that showed that the US was a 
true friend to the UAE. 
 
 5.  (C) Commenting on the good health care his nephew was receiving 
in the U.S. (Mayo Clinic), Saif said that humans need to benefit from 
one another (NOTE: Our consular section opened this past weekend to 
expedite visa issuance for Saif's nephew who was diagnosed with 
leukemia.)  Patients seeking health care in the U.S. were often 
surprised at the existence of non-profit institutions delivering 
quality care; many Emiratis "changed their minds about America" when 
they realized this, he added.  Moving beyond the erroneous images on 
television, Emiratis who visit see Americans as "normal" people "like 
us," he said, endorsing international travel as a means of broadening 
perspectives -- with a reference to his own eye-opening visit to 
China. 
 
 6.  (C) He said many of his key staff were U.S. educated, and 
therefore their ideas sometimes clashed with his own U.K. schooling. 
All benefit from the exchange, he suggested, noting that the frames 
of reference gained from overseas experience between the ages of 18 
and 25 are particularly impressionable -- and more valuable when Arab 
students do not cluster in a few schools.  He was pleased that in the 
U.S. people simply ask where you are from, not whether you are an 
American citizen or not.  They look at everyone as "locals." 
 
 7.  (S/NF) COMMENT:  Having recently been elevated to Deputy Prime 
Minister, Shaykh Saif is clearly an ascendant power within the Nahyan 
family, and the UAEG.  Within the UAEG the MOI is increasingly 
assertive and somewhat independent.  Within the family, Saif is the 
most senior of the second largest block of brothers (after the Bani 
Fatima), the five sons of Moza Al-Khaili.  Since Zayid's marriage 
with Moza was one of the old man's last, the younger brothers are 
only now coming into prominence, and Shaykh Saif appears to be 
playing the role of their patron (he presided over the recent wedding 
of Shaykh Khaled, his full brother and youngest of Zayed's sons). 
 
 8. (S/NF) COMMENT CONTINUED:  Given the opaque nature of cabinet 
reshuffles, it is difficult to say definitively why Saif was 
elevated, but it may have something to do with housecleaning after 
the Shaykh Issa scandal.  Under this hypothesis, since the Nahyan 
family agreed to move against Issa, it was also be necessary to 
remove other Shaykhs with personal problems from positions of 
authority (former DPM Sultan bin Zayid had a tumultuous youth; Hamdan 
bin Zayid is rumored to have had a drinking problem).  And clearly, 
any action legal against Issa required having the Minister of 
Interior on board. 
 
OLSON