(C) EU/IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE: LOW EXPECTATIONS

C O N F I D E N T I A L BRUSSELS 002456

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/08/2014
TAGS: PHUM IR EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: (C) EU/IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS DIALOGUE: LOW EXPECTATIONS

Classified By: USEU/POL: Harry O'Hara, reasons 1.4 b/d


1. (C) Summary: A key EU official involved in the ongoing
EU/Iran human rights dialogue believes that the next round of
that dialogue (June 14-15 in Teheran) will accomplish little.
End summary

2.(C) The EU Council official responsible for organizing the
next round of EU/Iran human rights dialogue (June 14-15 in
Teheran) told us that while she thinks that it is important
that the EU hear what the new Iranian government has to say,
she does not expect much to happen next week. During the
first day of the closed session government-to-government
talks, the EU will raise 30 plus specific human rights
violation cases with the Iranians as well as press for
information on a number of Iranian Jews who have been missing
since the 90's. She told us that the Iranians have also asked
for a discussion of torture and she wondered whether they
want to talk about Iran or rather debate current events in
Iraq. She noted that while the EU does not know the new
Iranian Parliamentarians that will be present at the talks,
they do know the Iranian judiciary's reps: they are "bad
news."


3. (SBU) On a more positive note for the EU, they believe
that the public roundtable sessions on June 15, where
academics and Iranian human rights organizations (including
the Islamic Human Rights Commission) will participate, will
be better. These sessions will consider "Administration of
Justice" (the EU topic) and "Enhancing Solidarity in the
field of Human Rights (the Iranian topic). During these
discussions, the EU team will try to focus on the need for
Iran to comply with international human rights norms. Our EU
interlocutor told us that the EU had insisted that they be
allowed to bring an human rights NGO to participate and a
FARSI-speaking rep from Amnesty International will be at the
second day of meetings.


4. (C) Particularly galling to our EU interlocutor is that
Iranian government seems to believe that they are doing the
EU a favor by having this round of the dialogue as a
"response" or "payback" for no Iran human rights resolution
at the recent CHR. In the Council's preliminary discussions
with the forthcoming Dutch EU Presidency, the Dutch human
rights experts made no secret of their distaste for moving
"rapidly" on a next round of the human rights dialogue with
Iran.

Comment:


5. (C) Even though EU expectations are low, they are not
ready to throw in the towel. From our optic, one reason for
this is that EU human rights experts do not want to give up
on the key tracks in the overall EU/Iran political dialogue
(human rights) as current EU policy is no EU trade and
cooperation agreement with Iran unless all four of the EU's
political conditions are met (non-proliferation, human
rights, end to support of international terrorism, and
support for peace in the mid-east). We also believe that this
reflects an EU predisposition to want to believe that
"dialogue" -- any dialogue and even a difficult and
frustrating dialogue -- is better than "no dialogue."
Schnabel