IRAN/IAEA: IAEA NEGOTIATIONS ON IRAN RESOLUTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L THE HAGUE 002344 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/17/2014 TAGS: KNNP PREL IR NL UNSC SUBJECT: IRAN/IAEA: IAEA NEGOTIATIONS ON IRAN RESOLUTION REF: A. STATE 198907 ¶B. STATE 199600 Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY POLITICAL COUNSELOR ANDREW SCHOFER FOR REA SONS 1.4 (B AND D) ¶1. (C) Political Counselor and Poloff shared ref A demarche text and ref b points with Dutch Government officials on September 16. Poloff reached Elka Merks, in the Dutch MFA Nonproliferation office, to convey points in advance of the morning meeting in Vienna at the IAEA. Poloff drew on reftels to emphasize the USG flexibility shown by the U.S. to date, and to stress that movement toward the U.S. position was necessary to reach consensus. ¶2. (C) Merks appreciated the heads up and promised to try to reach Dutch mission negotiators in time to alert them to our position before the start of negotiations in Vienna. ¶3. (C) Later in the day, PolCouns discussed reftel points with Jaap Werner, head of the MFA's Political Affairs department. Werner appreciated the U.S. side's transparency with regard to this issue, but noted that the EU had recently reaffirmed its intention to let the EU-3 retain the lead on the Iranian proliferation issue. He agreed that it was important to send a "strong signal" to Iran, but would not comment on specific triggering language for a resolution. SOBEL