UNCLAS COLOMBO 000411

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KNNP PARM PREL MNUC IR CE IAEA
SUBJECT: SRI LANKA: DEMARCHES ON IAEA

REF: A. STATE 30313

B. STATE 31323


1. (U) On February 24 poloff presented reftel demarches to
Sumedha Ekanayake, Assistant Director for UN and Multilateral
Affairs, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ekanayake
thanked us for the information but offered no immediate
reaction to either demarche, noting only that Aruni
Wijewardena, Sri Lanka's new ambassador accredited to UNVIE,
had just arrived in Vienna this week and would be examining
these issues closely. He undertook to pass the information
to her.


2. (SBU) Comment: In view of the close ties between Iran
and Sri Lanka, we believe there is little possibility of the
Sri Lankan government issuing a national statement on Iran
(Ref B). President Kumaratunga made a two-day state visit to
Iran November 23-24 at the invitation of the Iranian
president and received an Iranian promise of concessional
treatment on petroleum exports. (Iran is Sri Lanka's main
supplier of crude oil.) More recently, Iran's deputy foreign
minister visited Sri Lanka on February 17 and announced that
his government will donate USD 10 million for tsunami relief
and rehabilitation activities in Sri Lanka.
LUNSTEAD