NEW IRAQ EXECUTIVE ORDER

S E C R E T MADRID 003833

SIPDIS

PLEASE PASS TO EB/ESC, EUR/ERA, EUR/WE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/01/2014
TAGS: PREL PTER KTFN SP
SUBJECT: NEW IRAQ EXECUTIVE ORDER

REF: (A) MADRID 03533 (B) STATE 194466

Classified By: Whitney Baird, REASON 1.4 (B) and (D)

(S) EconOff spoke on 10/1/04 with MFA SubDirector for the
Near East, Alberto Moreno, re: the new Iraq Executive Order.
Moreno said that the Order was "good". However, the GOS does
not plan at the moment to change and/or introduce legislation
along the lines of the U.S. Iraq Executive Order. Morenos
said the GOS would welcome information from the U.S. on
specific cases of Spain-related Iraq insurgency financing.
He noted, however, that even with the "best will in the
world", there was no "mechanism" in Spain to block financing
for "insurgents", unless one could also show that said
"insurgents" also supported and/or were terrorists. He
mentioned the example of Moqtada al Sadr, clearly an
insurgent, but somebody the Iraqui government might want to
include in a political settlement. Morenos said his comments
were the GOS position on the Iraq Executive Order.
ARGYROS