SPAIN ON SUPPORT FOR IRAQI SPECIAL TRIBUNAL:

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 004337

SIPDIS

S/WCI
NEA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/12/2014
TAGS: PREL PHUM PTER PREF SP
SUBJECT: SPAIN ON SUPPORT FOR IRAQI SPECIAL TRIBUNAL:
"MAYBE AFTER IRAQI ELECTIONS"

REF: SECSTATE 240444

Classified By: Political Counselor Kathy Fitzpatrick, reason 1.5 (B).


1. (C) Poloff met on 11/12 with Eva Martinez of the MFA's
Directorate General for the Near East to encourage Spanish
assistance for the Iraqi Special Tribunal. Martinez said
Spain had received no request from the Iraqi Interim
Authority (IIG) for assistance in preparing for the Iraqi
Special Tribunal. She indicated that if such a request did
come forward, the GOS would be unlikely to act on it until
after the Iraqi elections, explaining that the Zapatero
Government would be reticent to support the Iraqi government
before it had the stamp of popular approval.


2. (C) However, Martinez was quick to point out that Spain
had earmarked "very significant" assistance funds for Iraq's
post-election government and that judicial assistance was an
obvious area for cooperation. Looking over the areas for
assistance outlined by IIG DPM Salih, Martinez said she did
not see any that would be objectionable from Spain's point of
view. She was skeptical about the possibility of sending
experts to provide local assistance, saying the possibility
of having a Spanish aid worker kidnapped or killed was
"politically unviable" for the Socialist government.
Martinez noted the continuing lack of security in Baghdad and
said it was more likely the GOS would support training in
Spain or perhaps material assistance.


3. (C) Despite the GOS boundaries on aid to the IIG, Martinez
expressed appreciation for the demarche, particularly
information on the precise nature of Iraqi needs. She said
she would forward the Iraqi request to the MFA's
international cooperation agency to give them a head start in
planning for post-election assistance. Martinez offered to
brief poloff on reactions by others in the MFA and by Spanish
diplomats in Baghdad to the Iraqi request.

//COMMENT//


4. (C) Martinez' comments on GOS unwillingness to aid the IIG
track with what we are hearing from other interlocutors. The
Iraqi charge d'affaires in Madrid told us recently that the
GOS will not send an ambassador to Baghdad until after the
elections, nor will it grant the Iraqi ambassador agrement
until after the elections. Socialist opposition to the war,
and especially to Spanish participation in the war, formed
the basis of their electoral victory in March and Zapatero is
leery of any action that would seem to lend legitimacy to
either the invasion or to the current Iraqi leadership. The
GOS appears to have selected the January elections as the
political marker for establishing normal ties with Baghdad.
ARGYROS