207. Telegram From the Embassy in the United Kingdom to the Department of State1
3468. Subject: (S) Afghanistan: Request For Arms for Insurgents.
1. (S—Entire text)
2. Salim Azzam, head of the London-based Islamic Conference of Europe, and still carried as a Saudi diplomat on the British diplomatic list, asked EmbOff to call February 14.
3. Azzam had just returned from Pakistan where he claimed to have been personally responsible for the formation of the United Islamic Liberation Front of Afghanistan. He said that he had himself announced the Front’s formation to the press and recalled earlier conversations with EmbOff in which he had said he had been working toward getting the various groups to agree to a charter.2
4. Azzam claimed also that he had been responsible for having the Afghans accepted as observers at the Islamic Conference where he had personally assisted them in meeting with important Arab Foreign Ministers.
5. Asked if he thought the Front would hold together, Azzam says that he believes it will because money will be supplied not to independent groups but only to the umbrella organization. This he had personally made clear to the leaders when he delivered to them “donations” from “private individuals” in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE.
6. Since he has now come to know the various leaders quite well, Azzam said, he has become certain of their real needs. No weapons, he insisted, have been delivered to them from the Peninsula, and they have expressed an urgent need for particular items:
—anti-tank weapons;
—anti-aircraft weapons for use in shooting down Soviet helicopters from the “sides of deep mountain valleys” as the pilots drop down for low-level reconnaissance and attack;
—small arms ammunition.
7. In summary, Azzam said, it is important to insure that the Soviet stay in Afghanistan is made as uncomfortable as possible; the Afghans [Page 580] want to fight; the new United Front will hold together as long as money and arms are denied to its constituent parts; all that is needed are weapons. Azzam asked that this message be passed to Washington for urgent consideration, implying that he would be the obvious channel for communication between the USG and the Front.
8. EmbOff thanked Azzam for his views but emphasized that any consideration which the Western alliance might give to his suggestion would be complicated by obvious factors, not the least of them being the attitude of the Pakistan Government. Azzam said he had been assured by senior officials in the GOP (he said he had talked to Zia, but did not say he spoke to him on this subject) that Pakistan would welcome arms shipments for the Afghans although Zia would, of course, continue to deny in public that any arms had in fact been delivered. EmbOff reiterated that while we appreciate Azzam’s efforts to offer us useful advice, the USG was not in the business of clandestine arms supply. EmbOff did, however, promise to convey Azzam’s views to Washington.
9. Comment: Azzam is believed in London to have a Muslim Brotherhood background and the money for his Islamic Council is said to come from his relation by marriage to Muhammed bin Faysal.3 He has in the last year sponsored several expensive conferences in London on Islamic issues (from which the Egyptian Embassy has routinely been excluded) ranging from the recent Jerusalem seminar to an early 1979 effort on behalf of Khomeini. We think he is an ambitious man who reflects Saudi foreign policy concerns—thus he is stridently anti-Camp David and was quick to denounce the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in public and in letters to Mrs. Thatcher and President Carter.4 We are obviously unable to judge what if any links he has developed with the various Afghan groups, but judging by his derogatory comments about Gailani, he does not enjoy a good relationship with the latter. Our guess is that Azzam knows he will gain important points with SAG if he can attain U.S. assistance for the new Afghan Front and he will hope for some kind of answer to his presentation to us.
10. Suggest Department repeat to Jidda and to Islamabad and Peshawar.
- Source: National Archives, RG 59, Central Foreign Policy File, P880029–1590. Secret; Nodis.↩
- Azzam’s activities in Pakistan were reported by James Sterba. See “Moslem Meeting is Urged to Unite Against Moscow,” New York Times, January 28, 1980, p. A1; and “Afghan Insurgents Fight Among Themselves, Too,” New York Times, March 2, 1980, p. E2.↩
- An apparent reference to the Saudi Prince.↩
- Not found.↩