Wikileaks: Dagan says peace process will achieve nothing

Mossad chief also says Moroccan king not interested in governing, Al-Jazeera may cause war in Middle East, calls Qatar emir annoying.

By YAAKOV KATZ
Meir Dagan (photo credit: courtesy)
Meir Dagan
(photo credit: courtesy)
“Nothing will be achieved” in the peace process with the Palestinian Authority, Mossad director Meir Dagan told a top American diplomat in the summer of 2007, according to a secret cable the US Embassy in Tel Aviv sent to the State Department.
During a two-hour meeting with Frances Fragos Townsend, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, Dagan – who is believed to be hawkish but whose opinions on diplomatic affairs are not publicly known in Israel – reportedly said that a completely new approach to the peace process was required, without elaborating.
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According to the cable, leaked by WikiLeaks on Sunday, Dagan told Townsend that IDF operations against Hamas in the West Bank were preventing the terrorist group from taking over the Fatah-controlled territory.
If Hamas took over in the West Bank, Dagan said, PA President Mahmoud Abbas would likely move to Qatar and join his “mysteriously wealthy” son there.
Moving on to Iran, Dagan was strangely optimistic, the cable said, that sanctions could have an effect. He said during the meeting that Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states all feared Iran, but wanted someone else “to do the job for them.”
The Mossad director accused 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 then told Townsend that, in his view, the US should pull its bases out of the country.
The US Central Command (CENTCOM) has a major base in Qatar.
“I think you should remove your bases from there...seriously,” Dagan said. “They have confidence only because of the US presence.”
Dagan added that Al-Jazeera could cause the next war in the Middle East, since Arab leaders, specifically in Saudi Arabia, hold the Qatari leader personally responsible for the cable station’s so-called provocations.
Dagan was particularly harsh regarding Moroccan King Mohammed VI, who he said had little interest in governing his country.
He also urged the US to keep the Pakistani president at the time, Pervez Musharaf, in office, citing a Pakistan ruled by radical Islamists with a nuclear arsenal at their disposal as his biggest nightmare.