ITALY WILL ATTEMPT TO CONTACT IRAN ON OUT OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L ROME 003224 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/20/2014 TAGS: PREL PGOV AF IR IT UN SUBJECT: ITALY WILL ATTEMPT TO CONTACT IRAN ON OUT OF COUNTRY REGISTRATION AND VOTING REF: STATE 179808 Classified By: POL MINCOUNS THOMAS COUNTRYMAN, REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (D). ¶1. (U) Post conveyed ref points in the MFA to the Office of Iranian Affairs, the Office of Under Secretary for Asia Margherita Boniver, and to Special Representative for Afghanistan Ambassador Enrico De Maio. We also delivered the points to the Prime Minister's office. ¶2. (C) De Maio said he had never understood why Pakistan saw its interests being furthered by interfering with efforts to register Afghan voters there, and he was equally perplexed by Iranian recalcitrance. De Maio said he would immediately seek to telephone Iranian Ambassador Teyrhian (phonetic spelling),currently Iran's Ambassador in Islamabad, formerly the Iranian Ambassador in Kabul, and before that Iran's representative to the Group of Four for Afghan discussions. Teyrhian had told De Maio that he wanted to go no further afield from Afghanistan than Islamabad, in order to "keep an eye" on the country. He is Iran's expert on Afghanistan, De Maio said, and might be able to help. ¶3. (C) Departing from his discussion of Teyrhian, De Maio expressed some nostalgia for the Group of Four and said he thought it would be helpful if some variant of those discussions could be revived. If for no other reason, he commented, it was a good forum for the U.S. to talk with Iran. Visit Rome's Classified Website: http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/rome/index.cf m SKODON NNNN 2004ROME03224 -