UK PLANS FOR ITS EU PRESIDENCY: MIDDLE EAST ISSUES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 002339

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/ERA, NEA/NGI, NEA/IPA, NEA/ELA

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/16/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER EAID UK XF EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: UK PLANS FOR ITS EU PRESIDENCY: MIDDLE EAST ISSUES


Classified By: USEU POLOFF LEE LITZENBERGER; REASONS 1.4 (B,D)


1. (C) Summary. According to UK mission staff in Brussels
who cover Middle East issues, the UK hopes to use its
July-December EU presidency to work closely with the U.S. in
promoting a common agenda. On Iraq, the UK hopes the June 22
conference will help move the EU to do more on rule of law
and human rights. On Syria, the UK and France are pressing
the Commission not to move forward on the EU-Syria
Association Agreement, and would welcome the U.S. weighing
in. On MEPP, the UK will push for full EU support for the
Wolfensohn mission, and may seek to clarify what EU contact
policy on Hamas is, and is not. On Iran, the UK sees EU
positions hardening; should EU3 negotations break down, UK
believes it likely the EU will support referral to the UNSC.
Once there, however, the UK will be in a somewhat awkward
position: as EU president, it must present member state
views, but is free to vote as it wishes. End Summary.

Iraq: Looking for the Iraq Conference to support ramped up
EU presence
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2. (C) In a June 16 meeting with USEU Poloff and Development
Counselor, UK mission staff that cover Middle East issues
previewed the UK's July-December 2005 EU Presidency goals for
the region. The UK has proposed a sentence for inclusion in
the conclusions for the June 22 Iraq Conference in Brussels
that it hopes will facilitate stepped-up EU activity in the
areas of rule of law and human rights. The UK thinks the EU
has relevant expertise in these areas and can make a positive
contribution, but it appears uncertain if the UK proposal
will get much support among members. The UK is sensitive to
EU member state concerns that the UK plans to use its
presidency to launch "a thousand Iraq initiatives," and would
prefer having the June 22 conference provide some political
cover for enhanced EU activities and presence in Iraq.
Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner recently announced plans to open
a Commission office in Baghdad "within the next few months,"
and the UK has offered to provide space, support and security
in its mission. The UK wants to build on this by proposing
an agenda to accompany an enhanced presence on the ground,
but building a consensus among member states will require
some effort and is not automatic.

Syria Association Agreement: UK nervous
--------------

3. (C) On Syria, the UK is concerned that the Commission
will forward the Syria Association Agreement to the UK when
it assumes the EU presidency on July 1, and asked the U.S. to
weigh in with the Commission. Poloff responded that he had
raised the issue with Commission Middle East Director the
evening before. Leffler adamantly denied that the Commission
sought to move the agreement forward. He claimed the
translation and other technical procedures involved in
preparing the texts would last until September, nearly a year
since the document was initialed. The ball, he said, was in
member states' court whether to move the agreement forward or
not. Our UK contacts disagreed. They said Leffler had
recently told UK Middle East Director Gooderham that the
translations would be completed by the end of June "at the
latest;" Leffler planned to forward the agreement to the UK,
as EU president, in early July. The next step in the process
involves the Council referring the texts to juris linguists,
who need approximately six weeks to consider them. Due to
the August break, this means it would be September before the
Council could act on the texts. If agreed, the Council would
then forward the texts to the European Parliament for
approval. The earliest the agreement could be signed would
thus be late September.


4. (C) The UK wants to put off the signing and also wants
to avoid having to discuss this agreement immediately upon
assuming the EU presidency, and is pressing the Commission to
delay further the translation process. Our UK contacts
claimed the French are "furious" with the Commission on this
point, and are also pressing for further delay. The UK would
welcome the U.S. weighing in on this issue with the
Commission, and noted that Gooderham did not mince words when
he spoke recently with Leffler. They said we also might want
to touch base with the French. UK Foreign Secrtary Straw
plans to place Syria on the agenda for the July EU Foreign
Ministers' meeting (GAERC),but would prefer not to discuss
the Association Agreement. Rather, Straw wants to highlight
how unhelpful Syria has been on a range of issues, from
Lebanon to Iraq to support for Palestinian extremists and
Hizballah, in the hopes of generating a consensus within the
EU that now is not the time to be making any gestures toward
Damascus. But the UK wants to avoid internal discussion
among member states about the Syria agreement, which could be
divisive and which would signal Damascus that it can try to
divide and separate member states.

MEPP
--------------

5. (C) Given the complexities surrounding Gaza withdrawal
and PA elections, it is hard for the UK to plan an MEPP
agenda for its EU presidency. The UK's focus will be on
supporting the Wolfensohn mission, and will work with member
states to be as responsive to his requests for assistance as
possible. The UK is pleased with the Commission's
representative, Christian Berger, who has been detailed to
work with Wolfensohn. Berger will come to Brussels one week
per month, and the UK will look to him to act as liaison with
Wolfensohn.

MEPP/Hamas
--------------

6. (C) We raised the June 16 wire service reports reporting
a meeting between Hamas mayors in Gaza and EU officials,
noting that Washington would be monitoring this with
interest. Our UK colleagues repeated that, while EU
ministers had approved a policy of limited, low-level
contacts with elected officials in localities where the EU
had projects under way, Hamas remained on the EU's terrorist
list. They promised to provide us the exact wording of the
EU policy, and acknowledged that the EU has not done a good
job articulating its policy in terms that emphasize that
Hamas is still considered a terrorist organization. They
said they would highlight this issue for London, indicating
that the UK will want to manage this issue constructively.

Iran: Italy a weak link?
--------------

7. (C) EU policy toward Iran is focused primarily on the
Trade and Cooperation Agreement negotiations, and the
parallel political dialogue, currently underway. The next
round is planned for mid-July in Tehran. These EU contacts,
however, are very much dependent on the EU3 discussions on
the nuclear issue. As long as the EU3 process is on track,
the EU negotiations will continue; if the EU3 process breaks
down, EU talks will also be suspended. Our UK contacts said
that, since the EU3 talks have been under way, EU member
state positions toward Iran have hardened. As a result, the
UK is reasonably comfortable that member states would support
referral to the UNSC if the EU3 talks break down. However,
our contacts were not certain how much could be achieved once
the Iran issue was in the UNSC. The UK would be in a bit of
an awkward position. As EU president, it would have an
obligation to represent the consensus views of EU members,
but would be free to vote as the UK. Regarding ways the U.S.
could help,
their suggestion was that we might want to weigh in
bilaterally with Italy, which has the most commercial
interests in Iran, has the most developed political dialogue
with Tehran, and has been the hardest to "keep on board" with
a toughening EU position on Iran. In part, they explained,
this was a hold over from the time of the formation of the
EU3, when Italy held the EU presidency. Italy was invited to
join the group, but declined due to it holding the EU
presidency. The offer was not extended again after Italy's
presidency expired.

SCHNABEL



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