SPAIN: ELBARADEI TELLS PALACIO IAEA SHOULD MOVE

C O N F I D E N T I A L MADRID 000635 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE (J. ZIMMERMAN AND M. JOSLIN) AND NP/RA (P. LAIDLAW) E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/24/2014 TAGS: PARM PGOV PREL PTER SP SUBJECT: SPAIN: ELBARADEI TELLS PALACIO IAEA SHOULD MOVE CAUTIOUSLY ON IRAN Classified By: Political Counselor Kathleen M. Fitzpatrick, reasons 1.4(B) and (D). ¶1. (C) Poloff queried Guillermo Kirkpatrick, the Foreign Ministry's Deputy Director General for Disarmament, about Minister Palacio's February 19 meeting with IAEA Director General ElBaradei in Vienna. Kirkpatrick said ElBaradei told Palacio he was extremely happy with Libya's cooperation with the IAEA. ElBaradei said it would be difficult for Libya to be more cooperative. ¶2. (C) The situation with Iran was more worrisome. ElBaradei wants to proceed slowly and cautiously with Iran, so Iran does not feel threatened and turn into another North Korea. He emphasized that where Libya has "locked up" and made available for inspection its nuclear program equipment, Iran has only suspended its enrichment activities. Iran's nuclear program is far more developed than Libya's and could be restarted at any moment. It will be important, said ElBaradei, not to provoke Iran, but rather to coax it into cooperating with the international community and eventually abandoning its program. MANZANARES